The Beechworth Correctional Centre has offered up to 30 inmates to work under supervision either at emergency staging areas or in the clean-up effort.

Prison general manager Terry Jose said the prisoners were involved in community work as part of their reintegration program and were trained in fencing and tree clearing.

The men, aged from their early 20s to mid 60s, could also help serving refreshments to the region's weary firefighters.

"Whatever's needed, we're a minimum security prison, we've offered our services to the community if the need arises," Mr Jose told AAP.

"We've got a number here who can work out in the community and do so on occasions and they would be available."

Inmates helped with the emergency response during the 2003 bushfires and in the floods in the late 1990s, he said.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) land and fire northeast area manager Peter Farrell said the inmates would not be allowed on the fire ground but the extra manpower was welcome.

"The reason for that is we haven't trained them to do that sort of work, but they have been trained in other work which would help with recovery," he said.

"With the fires there's been a lot of agricultural land burnt, there's a lot of fences burnt so there's definitely a need for that support."

Mr Farrell said the Municipal Emergency Coordination Centre would decide whether to call the prisoners in.

Calm conditions helped firefighters gain the upper hand on the Beechworth blaze overnight.

Spot fires ahead of the main front were threatening townships in the areas of Dederang and Gundowring late Monday as winds pushed the blaze southeast.

Incident controller Rob Chalwell said urgent fire warnings to those communities had since been downgraded.

But a major power switching station that supplies up to 40 per cent of Victoria's power had been impacted and was not running at full capacity.

Firefighters have built about 115km of containment lines around the 30,000ha blaze and are working around the clock to complete another 15km of fire breaks.

Mr Chalwell said they hoped to have the fire contained by the weekend before hot weather returned.

"If we can get another few days of this sort of weather and winds I reckon we'll have a good show of keeping it in our containment lines."