Firefighters have urged people to call them even to the smallest fire after a Waikato couple lost their house overnight.
Firefighters were called to the large house on Waghorne Rd between Matamata and Te Aroha shortly after 4am today to find it burning fiercely.
The house could not be saved.
Fire Service shift manager in Auckland, Jaron Phillips, said the couple who lived in the house with their young baby had a small fire at the house earlier in the night.
"They believed they had extinguished it and left the house.
"But unfortunately they didn't. We arrived on the scene to find it well involved in fire.
"They returned later on to find us putting it out."
Mr Phillips said the couple did not call the Fire Service to the first fire.
"We would be encouraging people to give us a call if they were unsure if it (the fire) was out.
"When we arrived the entire house was completely involved in fire."
The fire was one of several firefighters attended in the top half of the North Island overnight.
At first light firefighters were still trying to extinguish a fire in wood waste at a Carter Holt factory in Port Whangarei.
The fire in a large pile of waste, about 40 metres by 40 metres, was first noticed about 1.30am today and at first light six crews were still fighting it.
It was sending a large pall of smoke over the area, Mr Phillips said.
Firefighters established a firebreak and called in a large digger to get to the seat of the fire.
"It is a difficult fire to put out. It is in a gully and quite some distance from the road.
"They are going to be there through the morning, I suspect."
In another fire in the south Auckland suburb of Otara a 10-year-old boy was burnt on his lower leg when a fire began in a bedroom about 3.30am today.
The fire was contained to the upstairs area by firefighters. The boy was not believed to be badly hurt.
In Rotorua police and fire safety officers were investigating a fire at a funeral home on Old Taupo Rd about 3am.
The fire was at the back of the building.
