Pat Ford was sitting and having a cup of tea at his Natimuk home when he heard the sirens coming from his local fire station, alerting his community that his township was under threat.

Natimuk is home to around 500 people and is about 25 kilometres west of Horsham in Victoria.

It was still under a Watch and Act alert on Saturday evening and is expected to be without power for days.

Pat Ford has has lived in the area on and off for 30 years but retired to the township in 2017.

He said it lost 15 structures during the blaze on Friday, but that figure could not be confirmed by the Country Fire Authority.

He said "ironically" he was with a friend, who is a member of the local CFA, when the sirens sounded on Friday morning.

"We started looking at our fire plan and I said to my wife 'okay, pack a bag and I will block all the gutters and fill them with water and then we will get out of town'," he said.

"By the time I'd blocked four gutters, four downpipes and put the hoses on, we … were in the middle of the smoke.

"It [the fire] came about 13 kilometres in about 20 to 25 minutes."

Counting the losses

While Mr Ford returned to find his home had been spared by the fire he said others were, sadly, not so lucky.

"Some of the families that have come in today are just standing there and looking at their houses with devastation. They're just flat on the ground," he said.

"I thought after last year we'd be okay. I didn't expect this to hit us like it did and I don't think anyone did."

A relief centre has been established for those affected by fire in the Wimmera area at the Horsham Town Hall.

Horsham's assistant chief fire officer Terry Fradd was at the centre on Saturday and said the efforts of local fire fighters, with support from farmers and members of the community, were unbelievable.

Assistant chief officer at Horsham, Terry Fradd. (ABC News: Leanne Wong)

"They worked tirelessly throughout the day and night, and we even had a lot of farmers with [machinery] which made such a huge difference," he said.

"It saved numerous houses by [having] that. We also had private appliances, which were old CFA trucks that farmers have bought off their own accord. They were on the fire ground as well."

Pat Ford expected the town would continue to remain close as the community comes to terms with what has happened and what is to come.

"Natimuk is an amazing little resilient community. Every now and again we have something thrown at the township,"