Two people have died in separate Victorian house fires including a child in Melbourne's outer east.
Three adults and two children were able to flee a Dandenong house as the blaze started on Sunday night.
A small child could not be saved despite the efforts of a family friend and a boarder who lives in a rear room.
The family friend, a man in his 30s, was hospitalised with serious burns, while the two other children and a woman in her 30s were also were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation.
On the other side of the city, a woman has died after being rescued from a burning home at Laverton.
Firefighters found a woman and man, both aged about 50, inside the home after receiving several "panicked" calls about a blaze just after midnight.
The woman died at the scene, while the man and two other men were taken to hospital in a stable condition.
The single storey, brick home was extensively damaged.
Crime scenes have been set up at both homes, with a forensic chemist and investigators to examine the cause of the fires on Monday.
