The air quality in communities in eastern Victoria continues to deteriorate as officials battle a big fire in the Hazelwood open cut coal mine.

The air quality at Morwell and Traralgon has hit a record low for the second time in a week.

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) says any air quality index reading above 150 is very poor.

On Sunday the air quality reading at Traralgon deteriorated to 460 and this morning it hit a high of 702 at Morwell.

Deputy Premier Peter Ryan has instructed the Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley to open a special centre in Morwell to answer health-related and business questions for residents.

Thick smoke from the blaze continues to engulf the town and has spread as far as Sale, 65 kilometres away.

Smoke forces school closure

The air quality is so bad that some schools are being closed down and children relocated to Moe.

The Education Department plans to close a primary school in the Latrobe Valley to protect its students from the smoke and ash coming from the Hazelwood and Yallourn fires.

The Commercial Road Primary School in Morwell will be closed and its students relocated to schools in Moe.

The school's playground, like most of Morwell, is affected by the smoke haze and covered in a fine ash.

An Education Department spokesman says students will be moved to surplus classrooms as early as tomorrow.

Students from other schools in Morwell may also be relocated.

Brenda Maguire's five-year-old son attends the Commercial Road school and says he comes home from school covered in fly-ash.

Power supply under threat from fire

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) says using too much water to extinguish the Hazelwood fire could disrupt the state's power supply.

More than 150 people attended a community meeting in Morwell last night about the fires.

CFA incident controller Barry Foss told the crowd that using too much water could damage mine infrastructure, disrupting energy generation at Hazelwood power station.

He says experts from around Australia, including the military, are being brought in to help the CFA work out how to extinguish the blaze.

"We've had events here around Morwell but I don't believe any have been as complex as this one," he said.

"I was here in 2006 down here on Black Saturday as well but in my 40 years in the CFA, I've never seen anything so complex before."

Communication

The CFA says it is on track to extinguish the Yallourn blaze but the Hazelwood mine fire is expected to burn for weeks and could require the help of military aircraft and equipment.

Victorian Health Minister David Davis says the Government is responding to the health risks from smoke in the Latrobe Valley.

Mr Davis was asked about the Government's response to the situation, during Question Time yesterday.

He told Parliament, the Government has stepped up monitoring of carbon monoxide levels and focused on community messaging to make residents aware of the risks.

"So there will be print advertisements as well and there will be some use of public meetings and other contact mechanisms," he said.

"So the communication activities are underway, there have been alerts issued by the chief health officer and mechanisms to respond."

Greens' MP Greg Barber asked whether the Government could offer indoor air quality testing, relocation allowances and in-home health checks.

He says the Government should be doing more to support people affected by the smoke.

"Is that really all you are offering to protect the health of some tens of thousands of citizens in the Latrobe Valley?" he said.

Falling trees

Meanwhile, fire authorities are warning motorists about the danger of falling trees on roads in the burnt areas across Gippsland.

Crews are working to remove dangerous trees in the Madalya Hiawatha fire near Yarram and the big fires in East Gippsland north of Orbost.

The Bonang Road has reopened for local residents between Goongerah and Bonang.

Residents need to carry some proof of their address to get through the roadblocks.