Man's body found after Victorian pub fire

Police are working to identify a man whose body was found in a Victorian pub that went up in flames.

The second level of the Travellers Rest Hotel in Thorpdale was extensively damaged by fire on Tuesday morning with firefighters taking more than an hour to bring the blaze under control.

A search of the two-storey building led to the discovery of the man's body.

No other people were in the building at the time of the fire.

"It's terrible ... I'm still sort of reeling so it's very sad," local baker John Marsh told 3AW.

"There are three things in the town - the pub, the bakery and the post office and it's just gone."

An arson chemist is expected to arrive in the small farming town on Tuesday to begin investigating the cause of the fire.