A man who miraculously survived the fire by taking refuge in a creek discovered the bodies of his neighbours when he returned to his devastated town.
Anthony Sexton, from Koornalla in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, lay in Traralgon Creek for two hours as the fire ravaged his house and car.
But when he went to check on his neighbours on Sunday afternoon he opened their garage door and found four bodies on the floor, The Age has reported.
They are believed to be the bodies of Alan Jacobs and his wife Miros, their 21-year-old son Luke and Luke's friend believed to be Nathan Charles.
"I still have not had a cry yet. I'm holding all that back. I have not been alone yet," Mr Sexton was quoted as saying in The Age.
The family probably died of a lack of oxygen as the inferno raged through the once picturesque neighbourhood.
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Family friend Bill Filips said everyone who had heard of the Jacobs' plight has been shocked.
"He actually bought my old house, that's how good friends we are," he was quoted as saying.
Mr Filips said the property, which backed onto Traralgon Creek, had been "the most beautiful little valley you could ever live in."
"Whenever you drove in there, there was just a smell of beautiful gum trees and a smell of the bush," he said.
Mr Jacobs had set up earthmoving and excavating equipment business, Latrobe Equipment.
He and Miros had been married for around 30 years and had two sons — Luke and Grant, who is believed to have been overseas when the fires hit.
Nathan Charles reportedly spoke to his father on the phone shortly before he died.
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