The deadly Black Tuesday bushfires 10 years on

Nine lives were lost, a hundred homes destroyed and 80,000 hectares of prime South Australian farming land blackened.

Tonight, 9NEWS looked back at the 2005 Black Tuesday fires, one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

The blaze began on January 10, and was initially contained by firefighters, but broke loose the next day and raged along the Eyre Peninsula until finally being contained again on January 12.

Eight people, four of them children, died in their cars as they tried to flee the inferno.

A schoolteacher was also killed when the firestorm engulfed the Shell Museum at North Shields near Port Lincoln.

North Shields was itself evacuated, as was Louth Bay.

A further 110 people were injured, five seriously enough to be flown to Adelaide Hospital for treatment.

The cost to others in the affected region was also heavy.

The fire destroyed 93 homes, dozens of cars and caravans along with boats, shops, fencing, cabins, power lines and water mains.

About 47,000 livestock also perished in the blaze, or were later destroyed by owners.