South Australia fire worst since 1983

A bushfire that has killed eight people in South Australia is the worst since the 1983 Ash Wednesday blazes that devastated the state, the government there said today.

Another eight people remained unaccounted for, a police spokeswoman said.

The entire lower Eyre Peninsula had been cut off by the blaze, which today continued to burn out of control this morning.

It has raced across 45,000ha since Monday afternoon.

South Australia Emergency Services Minister Patrick Conlon said the scale of the destruction was staggering.

"This is certainly the worst fire since Ash Wednesday, certainly in terms of causalities, in terms of deaths," he told the Seven Network today.

"It's the type of fire that we know that we have the potential for and we all hope will never happen. Unfortunately it has happened."

All eight victims of the inferno were burnt to death in their cars.

Police found two burnt-out vehicles on a road near the southern Eyre Peninsula town of Wanilla -- three bodies in one car, and two in the other.

Three other people died in a car on the Port Lincoln Highway at the nearby town of Poonindie, police said.

"It has moved faster than any similar sort of fire that we have had records of. That is why, tragically, it has caught some people fleeing," Mr Conlon said.

Some 28 people were killed in the 1983 Ash Wednesday blaze in the state's south-east and Adelaide Hills. Another 47 people died in those fires in Victoria.

Mr Conlon met emergency services agencies last night and would fly over the affected area today.

"Our big priority now is that the fire is not actually yet contained," Mr Conlon said.

"We've had a lot of firefighters, something like 250 ... working through the night.

"So we're hoping to get that contained before we get some more serious weather in tomorrow."

Today, humidity would be high, the temperature was expected to hit 30 degrees Celsius by this afternoon and the westerly wind would veer south-westerly, according to South Australia fire services spokesman Chris Smith.

"During the night, the change of weather has helped fire crews considerably," he said.

"They have been involved in some backburning actions along the Cummins to Tumby Bay roads to put a fire break in to stop the spread of the fire."

But tomorrow is expected to be hot again, with a top temperature of about 36 degrees.

Mr Conlon said if residents in the affected areas had not taken precautions to be able properly defend their homes, they must evacuate early.

Yesterday, the inferno destroyed five houses, two cabins, three sheds, one shop, three vans, two cars, 15 caravans, two buses and four boats.

- AAP