Firefighters from across Auckland were this afternoon battling a "substantial'' factory fire on Te Atatu Peninsula.

A couple fled their luxury yacht early this morning when it was engulfed in flames and sunk in the Marlborough Sounds.

A 50 foot boat sank in the Marlborough Sounds early this morning after a huge fire on board which left two people needing treatment.

Fire north communications shift inspector Scott Osmond said about three hectares of vegetation were off Waipoua Settlement Rd in the Kaipara district were involved in fire.

One person has died in a house fire in Upper Hutt overnight. Police said emergency services were called to the blaze in Trentham, Upper Hutt shortly after 8pm.

When school principal David Grant's house burned to the ground in July, the last thing he thought was that he was "lucky".

A house was destroyed by fire in the small Taranaki town of Okaiawa last night.

A 36-year-old man has died after his makeshift shelter burnt down overnight.

A person has been found dead in a tent near Marton following a fire. Police and fire investigators have entered the site and a police cordon was put in place.

A scrub fire which lit up the Hutt Valley last night is believed to have been deliberately set.

Two teenagers are being spoken to by police as a deliberately-lit fire engulfs a large area of scrub in the eastern hills of Lower Hutt tonight.

A large fire which broke out at a supermarket on Waiheke Island this afternoon has been extinguished.

The family of a 6-year-old girl killed in an Auckland house fire has urged parents to "hold their children close".

A man was taken to hospital with burns to his face and hands when an explosion at a Dannevirke house blew a bedroom apart yesterday.

A 6-year-old girl who was killed in an Auckland house fire last night was described as a "beautiful little girl" who was always wearing a dress and a smile.

A 6-year-old girl was killed in a fire started by a 3-year-old playing with matches in an Auckland home yesterday.

The death of a 6-year-old girl in a house fire in Auckland today has led to calls for matches to be kept away from children.

One person has been taken to hospital following an early morning blaze in a central Wellington office building.

A scrub fire is causing delays to motorway traffic near the Puhoi tunnel, outside Auckland.

The DoC could be facing one of its worst possum infestations in decades, partly because workers who helped with pest control were sent to fight bushfires in Australia.

Police are standing guard outside the remains of an abandoned Christchurch house which was destroyed in a suspicious fire early today.

A pizza oven fire has sparked an evacuation of Auckland's Langham Hotel.