Firefighters brought Australia's deadliest bushfires in 20 years under control Wednesday after nine people died in the blazes. 

Up to 15 more people were missing, emergency officials said.

Large areas of southern Australia are on alert for more outbreaks after fires raced in a line across the Eyre Peninsula, about 250 kilometers west of the state capital Adelaide.

The South Australian Country Fire Service said the Eyre Peninsula fires, which began on Monday, had been brought under control earlier yesterday.

State police said the body of a woman had been found in a home in the tiny coastal hamlet of North Shields.

Eight others, including two young children, were confirmed dead on Tuesday. All eight died in their cars as they tried to flee the blazes.

South Australian Police Commissioner Mal Hyde declared the fires a major emergency, meaning emergency aid and recovery must be provided for 48 hours.

The fires burned out about 100,000 hectares, including grazing land. Property damage has been described as significant and estimates of livestock losses have been put at 10,000.

Fire alerts remain this week for South Australia, neighboring Victoria and New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

Bushfires are a constant threat to tinder-dry bushland during the sweltering Australian summer, although the Eyre Peninsula fires were the first major blazes of this season.

Fires described as Australia's worst environmental disaster destroyed more than 3 million hectares across three states and territories, killing four people in the capital Canberra, in the summer of 2002-03.

In 1983, the devastating "Ash Wednesday" fires in South Australia and Victoria killed 76 people.

(China Daily January 13, 2005)