One dead as police investigate retirement village fire

One resident, believed to be aged 78, was confirmed dead by police, Inspector Jayme Cutler said.

"Emergency services were on scene quite quickly and managed to evacuate about 40 people from the area ... but unfortunately there was one particular person who wasn't able to get out of the unit itself," Insp Cutler told reporters at Kilmore.

The fire was brought under control just after 7am and firefighters will spend the rest of the morning putting out hot spots.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, but arson and explosives squad detectives and an arson chemist were set to begin investigating after the site was declared safe at roughly 11am.

The deceased man was a resident in one of two units partially destroyed by the fire, with another three units suffering heat damage.