A fatal housefire in a fast-growing suburb on the fringes of Geelong has exposed serious flaws in firefighting services where urban areas meet the country.

A leaked emergency recording from the incident at Armstrong Creek, obtained by 7.30, revealed a professional backup crew wasn't called until 15 minutes after the initial alert, so the body of a woman in the house was not reached for more than 30 minutes.

The volunteer crew already on the scene had been unable to help the first professional crew already at the fire with the rescue.

Paid firefighters say too much is asked of volunteer rural crews, who in the past were mainly expected to fight grassfires and are not always trained or equipped to enter raging house fires.

This poses safety concerns for residents moving into fast-growing suburbs encroaching on what were once rural areas.

Backup crew redirected

The Boxing Day fire at Armstrong Creek claimed the life of a disabled woman, who 7.30 has chosen not to name at the request of the family.

The Armstrong Creek home on fire. ( ABC News )

A professional fire crew from the suburb of Belmont arrived on the scene at 3:59am, about 13 minutes after the first emergency call was made. En route they called for a professional backup crew from Geelong.

Two local volunteer crews also made their way to the scene, so the Geelong crew was redirected to the Belmont station as backfill.

But the volunteer crews were unable to help as they did not have the equipment or training required.

The Belmont crew again called for backup, and the Geelong crew was sent to join them

The Belmont crew, aware a woman in a wheelchair was trapped inside, entered the house through the front door. They only had enough firefighters to go in one entrance.

At 4:15am, 29 minutes after the first emergency call, the professional crew from Geelong arrived and entered the back door, where they found the woman's body.

Following the incident, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) made changes to the area's call-out system so now two crews of paid firefighters are sent to every call for help.

"Straight after that fire we did an immediate assessment of it," CFA chief officer Steve Warrington told 7.30.

"We currently have two staffed stations and a volunteer station, so we've enhanced our response to Armstrong Creek and we've done that for the immediate foreseeable future."

'It's deeply upsetting for firefighters'

Firefighter Geoff Barker says reform of the Victorian fire services is urgently needed. ( ABC News )

Firefighters say if the professional Geelong crew had driven straight to the Armstrong Creek fire, they would have arrived 15 minutes earlier than they did and would have provided critical backup for the Belmont crew.

No firefighters have suggested the woman who died would still be alive today, but they said she would have stood a better chance of surviving.

CFA professional firefighter Geoff Barker said the Armstrong Creek fire showed why Victorian fire service reform was urgently needed.

For years, it has been caught up in an industrial dispute between career firefighters and their bosses.

"It's deeply upsetting for firefighters," Mr Barker told 7.30.

"It's frustrating when you know you could have made a difference and you're restricted by processes that have failed.

"I've been in situations myself where we've been on scene, we're committed to a fire fight and find ourselves with no backup behind.

"That's no criticism of volunteers — it's just the current fire service as we see it at the moment."

Locals concerned

In the past volunteer rural crews have mainly been expected to fight grassfires. ( Supplied: Andrew Morley )

Armstrong Creek locals have also raised concerns over the response time.

They said they were worried a permanently manned fire station had not already been established in the area, even though authorities had known for years the area would explode with new housing developments.

Local Jack Bolton said Armstrong Creek needed its own fire station with crews trained to enter burning houses.

"Something like this could have been looked after a bit quicker and people would feel more safe out here," he said.

"This suburb here is growing extremely fast and now, if something was to happen again, I'm sure heads would roll because it shouldn't happen."

A CFA spokesperson said the organisation "has plans to establish a fire station to service the growth area of Armstrong Creek, but the timelines have yet to be confirmed".

"Work is underway to identify and acquire a suitable site."

Mr Warrington said the CFA was "well equipped to look after urban areas, in fact that's our primary role".

"People in Victoria probably don't understand that CFA is one of the biggest urban firefighting services.

"Where we struggle, as does all infrastructure services, including emergency services, is the growth corridors."