A bushfire threatening homes and lives in Victoria's east is still out of control after the state's hottest December day on record.

Key points: The Marthavale-Barmouth Spur bushfire in remote Gippsland generated "its own weather" as it grew overnight

The Marthavale-Barmouth Spur bushfire in remote Gippsland generated "its own weather" as it grew overnight Firefighters said dry conditions had robbed them of wet gullies or creeks which could help contain the blaze

Firefighters said dry conditions had robbed them of wet gullies or creeks which could help contain the blaze In western Victoria, residents evacuated from Lexton overnight were urged to stay away

The fire threatening Tambo Crossing, Wattle Circle and Stirling, to the north-east of Bairnsdale, was downgraded at 7:30pm on Saturday night to a watch-and-act alert.

Despite the downgrade, the fire, which spans about 37,000 hectares, is not yet contained by fire crews.

Nearby Brookville spent much of the hottest part of Saturday at emergency level before being downgraded after 9:00pm (AEDT), as the Barmouth Spur fire travelled northbound out-of-control towards the area, threatening homes.

Another watch-and-act warning is current for a fire in the state's west, inland from Portland, affecting Drumborg, Greenwald, Heywood, Hotspur, Lyons, Milltown, Mount Richmond, and West Sinclair.

Firefighters on Saturday morning said the blaze had "almost quadrupled" overnight Friday but did not appear to have destroyed any properties.

"This fire was large enough to be generating some of its own weather … and was driving itself along purely with the energy created by the fire," the State Control Centre's Luke Heagerty said.

He said firefighters were still facing tough conditions on Saturday, with a long-term lack of rain in Gippsland leaving firefighters without wet gullies or creeks to help contain the blaze.

"It's deep forest country so tall trees, very challenging tracks, great slopes, it's hard work for people in those areas to contain these fires," he said.

The fire could be seen as it swept towards Tambo Crossing in the early hours of Saturday morning. ( Supplied: Michael Airey )

The Great Alpine Road remains closed between Bruthen and Ensay.

Incident controller Aaron Worcester told the ABC fire had crossed the Great Alpine Road several times overnight and the road was likely to remain closed for some time while trees were cleared and the safety threat assessed.

He said powerlines which run from Bruthen up into Ensay, Swifts Creek, Omeo and Benambra had been affected by the fire, resulting in mobile phone and power outages.

"If the general public are having difficulties either reporting a new fire or a medical concern, if they can't get on the phonelines they can report them direct to one of the fire stations where we may be able to radio information through," he said.

Lexton evacuees wait to head home

Meanwhile in western Victoria, some residents from Lexton are waiting to return after they were told to evacuate as an out-of-control blaze west of the town threatened to destroy homes on Friday.

More than 150 firefighters battled to stop the Lexton fire from destroying homes. ( Supplied: State Control Centre Media )

Sheep shearer James Braszell said he came into town about 5:30pm and saw two roads blocked off.

"I thought I'd stick around at the pub to find out what was happening. Then the wind changed and things started to get a bit hairy," he said.

The 24-year-old went to his neighbour's house and turned on the sprinklers to keep the dogs cool until they came home.

The fire began about 4:00pm as the state sweltered through its hottest December day on record. ( Supplied: State Control Centre Media )

"Then the police turned up and told us to evacuate. We headed to the relief centre and waited for more news.

"Everyone was a bit worried, as you would be, but nobody got hurt and it was only grass that burnt and the odd bit of stock that was lost, so everyone was just thankful that it wasn't worse than it was."

Loading

Julie Garden, the owner of The Stag Hotel at nearby Learmonth, said for a while no-one knew what was going to happen.

"It was a bit scary but we were okay," she said.

"There were a lot of cars going to the football club and everyone was up and about hanging around for a while to see what was going to happen. We could just see a lot of smoke."

Avoca Milk Bar owner Karan Verma said the town was in chaos.

"We closed around 8:30pm and at 10:00pm a woman called up crying," he said.

"She was very distressed and worried she would lose her home. She needed some milk so we re-opened for a few people. It was very chaotic with cars all going to the football oval, people being evacuated from Lexton and the choppers going."

Mr Heagerty said people who had followed the recommendation to evacuate from Lexton overnight should continue to stay away on Saturday.

"We are still seeing some pretty large fires out there and so the advice is until we are confident that we've secured these fires and been able to put containment lines around them that people should wait until further advice," he said.

A community meeting at Miners Rest on Saturday heard that one of the first responders to the fire reportedly lost 1,000 acres of crop as well as livestock.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 3 seconds 1 m 3 s Five properties were damaged after exploding gas bottles fuelled a grassfire at Seaford in Melbourne's south-east.

Heat records for December were broken on Friday, as temperatures reached 47.9 degrees Celsius at Hopetoun and Horsham in the state's north-west.

The fire risk also hit Melbourne, after a fire at Seaford in the city's south-east exploded gas cylinders and broke out into a grassfire which damaged five properties.

One of the firefighters battling the Seaford blaze was treated for smoke inhalation. ( Facebook: Frankston and Carrum Downs News )

Fire season just beginning

Farmers Kate Blood and Rob Pelletier live about 18 kilometres from Lexton and were on high alert on Friday when the grass fire started.

"We went and looked at the horizon and watched a plume of smoke building very rapidly," Ms Blood said.

"We were not in the path of the fire, it was close to us, but the wind was moving away from us."

Farmer Kate Blood said it had been nearly two decades since she had prepared to face the flames of a bushfire. ( Twitter: Kate Blood )

It was the first time in 18 years the couple have prepared to use their fire kits.

"We put them on in case something happened. There was quite a bit of lightning and a very volatile wind change so we thought we needed to be ready to put them on at short notice," Ms Blood said.

She said every year she became "increasingly anxious" about the threat of bushfires.

"We know we have a good two to three months ahead of us for the fire season, so we just have to continue maintaining our preparation which is a lot of work on a small farm."