An hour after Henry Kiss from the Portsea Surf Life Saving Club took to to social media to warn beachgoers of dangerous conditions to come, the worst was realised.

His team were alerted to an unresponsive swimmer at Gunnamatta Beach, one of Victoria’s most dangerous stretches of coastline.

“Gunnamatta is a treacherous beach, it’s very well known, it has large surf,” Kane Treloar from Life Saving Victoria said.

It’s believed the man suffered a medical episode in the water and couldn’t be revived.

His death set the tone for an incredibly busy day for rescue crews across Victoria’s coastline.

A lone jet ski found off the coast of Safety Beach about 3pm also set off alarm bells.

A group of boaties waved down rescue crews after they found two boys – aged about 13 years old – struggling in the water.

One was unresponsive and bleeding from his head with a suspected spinal injury, after he was thrown from his jet ski in a collision.

The boy was rushed back to shore and met by a wall of beach towels as he was placed in a neck brace and airlifted to hospital.

In total there were 46 incidents across Victoria, including nine people pulled from a rip at Portsea, with another mass rescue at Jan Juc.

A 19-year-old was also pulled from waters at Brighton Beach.

“It just emphasizes that when you are going out to the beach, it doesn’t matter how dangerous it is, make sure you are looking for those red and yellow flags,” Treloar reminded swimmers.

But many chose not to head the warnings.

Mount Martha, looked more like a Europen postcard, while a spot on the sand was the hottest real estate at Blairgowie and Sorrento.

Inland, firefighters braced for a different kind of extreme.

“Because it is so dry across the landscape in Victoria – particularly the west and southwestern parts of the state – it actually doesn’t take much for a fire to start, take hold, and then spread,” Jason Heffernan, Chief Officer from Country Fire Authority (CFA) said.

The fire in the Grampians has burnt through 46,000 hectares.

It’s contained but even today in Arart, residents were forced to put out spot fires at Green Hill Lake.

The extreme heat is being fanned by a wind change.

“The cold front as it approaches is dragging that heat down from the northern parts of Australia,” Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology told 9News.

The heat has also prompted a warning to pet owners, from the Lost Dogs Home.

“If you can’t leave your hand on the pavement for seven seconds without it burning, it’s way to hot for the dogs,” Temira Keat from Lost Dogs Home told 9News.

There is a heatwave warning current for parts of the state, including East Gippsland and West and South Gippsland Districts.

The hot weather is set to last into Monday, with authorities fearing the worst is yet to come.