UPDATE: THE Victorian government has rejected claims that the Country Fire Authority's website failed yesterday because of budget cuts.

The CFA website and its Fire Ready App crashed yesterday as the state sweltered through its hottest day in years, with up to 700 people a second seeking bushfire information.

Opposition spokesman Luke Donnellan says the crash was directly attributable to the state government's recent cuts to the emergency services budget.

But a spokesman for Deputy Premier Peter Ryan says the failure had nothing to do with funding.