Julie Disher from Chiltern Butchery got the knock on the door on Sunday afternoon requesting supplies for a barbecue.

She happily handed over all the sausages in store and made up extra hamburgers from scratch.

“That’s just what we do … they’re our firies, we do what we can to feed them,” Ms Disher said.

“We’d rather feed them than be out there.”

Chiltern Bakery provided the bread, IGA donated a large number of salads and Barnawartha Post Office was on hand for last-minute milk and other supplies.

They made hundreds of packed lunches at Chiltern Senior Citizens Hall, between them, then put on a massive barbecue at Barnawartha Fire Station in the evening for local and visiting firefighters.

Volunteers even walked in off the street to offer any help.

Firefighters were either fed after a long stint on the fire ground or before they went in as a relief crew.

Ms Disher said her butchery was out of stock for most of Monday, but hoped people would understand it was for a good cause.

Jessica Zuber, from Chiltern’s emergency catering team, thanked the businesses for their generosity as it would have been too hard to source all the meals from Wodonga on short notice.

“They did everything they could,” she said.

“(CFA volunteers) seemed to appreciate it after they came in, they’d had a big day.”

Yackandandah Community Development Company’s petrol station was reopened for a short time from about 8.30pm Sunday so motorists could refuel when the fire danger passed.

Manager Andrew Earl said he made the decision to close half an hour early, at 4.30pm, as fire closed in on the town.

“We stayed open as late as we could until it became too dangerous,” he said.

“The staff have to put their fire plans in place as well.”

CFA trucks had access to the petrol station’s after-hours diesel service.

The petrol station was busy with customers when it reopened Monday morning.

Beechworth Bakery opened in a reduced capacity in case staff needed to focus on firefighting duties or were unable to travel.