Off-roading fans say burned out cars common in area but body find was complete shock Shane Malcolm Bell I wished we had kept on driving because it was a grisly find.

As Queensland sweltered in yesterday's heatwave and fires burned across large areas of the continent, Australia received warning of a dangerous summer ahead.

Flames reached as high as nine metres today as a South Auckland home was engulfed in a blaze.

Two-thirds of Queensland, Australia is expected to be on bushfire watch as temperatures in parts of the state soar above 40C for the fourth day.

Emergency services were called to the property on Finlayson Brook Rd in Waipu just before 9.30am where the fire was well involved, said a Northern Fire Communications spokesman.

A fire which engulfed two garages at a Nelson high school yesterday evening is being treated as suspicious.

The parents of Kiwi triplets killed in an inferno at a Doha mall have marked the 6-month anniversary of the tragedy by releasing the last photograph taken of their toddlers.

The largest of three scrub fires that burned across the Western Bay of Plenty yesterday is believed to have been deliberately lit.

Police and fire safety officers are investigating the cause of a blaze that destroyed an upmarket Auckland home, almost killing the owner.

A person is understood to have died in a house fire in a remote rural area north of Napier last night.

A woman was dragged to safety by neighbours when an Orakei home exploded in flames last night.

An explosion at a Hawke's Bay school was caused by a parent using a portable gas cooker incorrectly to cook homemade meat patties.

A Whangarei lunch bar and an office have been badly smoke-damaged after a deliberately-lit fire.

Education officials have contacted Mayfair School after a gas canister exploded and injured a parent on the school grounds.

A huge fire that raged for almost 24 hours south east of Invercargill has destroyed more than 400ha of an internationally recognised scientific reserve.

A gas cooker has exploded at a Hawkes Bay school, injuring one person, emergency services say.

Helicopters will join efforts to control a large bushfire this morning that has already burned more than 400ha of conservation land near Invercargill.

A fire safety lesson gone wrong threatened the lives of a mother and her two young children while they slept in the early hours of yesterday.

Seventy-four-year-old Eltham Fire Brigade volunteer Max Mackay has been awarded the United Fire Brigade association 50-year service medal.