Landslides, bushfires threat for Vic towns

Landslides and bushfires could hit Victorian coastal towns that have already lost more than 100 homes in Christmas Day fires.

Wye River and Separation Creek are reopened for many residents but the towns now face another heatwave that could spark fires up again.

The Great Ocean Road towns have been cleared of airborne asbestos, and electricity and water have largely been restored.

But the possibility of landslides remains a real issue, Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley says.

"A fire moving through can move things, and all of a sudden what is a destructive fire ground can actually be another hazard of stability," Mr Lapsley told reporters on Monday.

Some houses, while still standing, are no longer safe to live in due to their positioning on the land, he said.

Mr Lapsley said milder weather conditions have allowed crews to assess homes, but the relief looked to be short-lived.

"We move back into hot weather next week and we'll move back into the January fire season again, which is something we need to be focused on," he said.

"The potential that it will move into the high 30s and into the 40s in the next week is one of those scenarios that we will face."

Incident controller Alistair Drayton said firefighters were dealing with dense forest and poor visibility in trying to control the still-burning blaze before next week's heat.

"(Our) control strategy is, get in as close as we can to the fire and directly attack it," he told AAP.

Bushfires across Victoria have destroyed 139 homes since October, including 116 in Wye River and Separation Creek.

Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett said 24 specialist forest firefighters from New Zealand arrived on Monday and will be based near dense, inaccessible bushland in the Great Otway National Park.

The Wye River-Jamieson Track fire has burned 2486 hectares in steep bushland, and is set to burn all summer.