A group of young board gamers has spent their Sunday night rescuing elderly residents after a fire broke out at a house near a nursing home in Melbourne's south-east.

The gamers, who were gathered at Murumbeena Uniting Church, went outside to investigate when youth pastor Kelly Skilton smelt smoke just before 7pm.

Residents of the Spurway Community nursing home in the Uniting Church foyer. Credit:Andrew Faram

Minister Jay Robinson said the church members saw the blaze coming from a home at the rear of a Murrumbeena Road fish and chip shop and called triple zero.

The youth group went into "overdrive", Ms Robinson said, and spent 20 minutes helping fire crews evacuate 25 residents from the Spurway Community nursing home into the church foyer.