Country Fire Authority crews and police are searching for the person after at least one house and numerous sheds and outbuildings were razed in the fire, near Lancefield, on Tuesday afternoon.
The blaze was sparked by a controlled burn on public land which jumped containment lines.
CFA incident controller Greg Murphy confirmed the search.
"A person is currently unaccounted for," Mr Murphy told AAP.
Mr Murphy said it's possible the missing person has failed to link up with friends or family or is already in a relief centre for evacuees at Gisborne.
"We're not waiting until daylight to find out, and we have a number of aspects that we are working through now," Mr Murphy said.
Crews won't know until daylight whether more than one home has been lost.
Mr Murphy said a ground and aerial assessment will take place at dawn.
An emergency warning is in place for the fire affecting Pastoria East, Nulla Vale and Benloch.
Benloch residents angry over fire
Debbie Garner does not know if she will have a home to return to after a controlled burn jumped containment lines and became a raging bushfire that is heading towards her street.
Victoria Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley says the out-of-control blaze that has threatened more than 200 homes near Lancefield in central Victoria on Tuesday was set last Wednesday by the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning on public land.
It jumped containment lines in hot, blustery conditions on Saturday and was forcing evacuations on Tuesday as it neared property, fanned by gale-force winds.
One house was destroyed in Three Chain Road, Cobaw, and sheds have been lost as the fire rages north of Lancefield.
Ms Garner fled Benloch, where it is now too late for residents to leave and those that are left there or in Nulla Vale are warned to shelter indoors.
She is angry with DEWLP over the fire that could destroy her Feeneys Lane home and the cat that she and her husband could not find.
"They started this and they really need to be held to account for this because they are ruining people's lives," Ms Garner told AAP.
"They did this a few years ago when we lived in Lancefield and it got out of control and it was burning for three days."
The couple's house is on the market but they do not know if it will survive.
"I hate living like this," she said.
"It is really not good when you get idiots that start fires and they really don't know the effect it has on the community."
Ms Garner and her husband packed up the dog and a few items on Tuesday afternoon.
"We are with friends at the moment so we are safe for now, but there are a lot of memories left behind," she told AAP.
The house destroyed in Cobaw is the second home in two days, after another was razed in Wensleydale on Monday in a different fire.
A Country Fire Authority warning for Benloch and Nulla Vale at 7.17pm AEDT showed the fire was a direct threat to homes in Ashworths Road, Musk Gully Road, Whalans Track and Greenways Road.
It is expected to also affect homes in Feeneys Lane, Westcott Lane, Showlers Road, Jackies Lane, Mitchells Road, Long Ryans Road, Burke & Wills Track and Sid Smith Lane.
A large fire-bombing aircraft carrying fire retardant chemicals has been flown from Sydney's Richmond RAAF base to assist ground crews.
They are working in unprecedented weather conditions for this time of year, with temperatures well into the 30s and gusting, dry northerly winds.
Federal government minister Greg Hunt has sent a letter to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews expressing his concerns about the fires.
He asked for an explanation about how the controlled burn near Lancefield got out of control, a spokeswoman for Mr Hunt says.
Despite the destruction, deputy incident controller on the Cobaw fire said DELWP was right to proceed with the controlled burn.
"I would rather have an escaped burn in October than a wild fire in mid-January," he told AAP.
"It's unfortunate that their planned burn escaped."
Mr Gleeson said the region's grassland is only 20 to 30 per cent cured but the forest, where the fire is burning, is dangerously dry because of drought conditions in central Victoria.
"The forest fuel moisture is normally at nine, 10, 11 per cent in summer, but right now it's below 9 per cent, which is just unheard of in October," he said.
"And today we had relative humidity down into single figures too."
