Weatherzone meteorologist Graeme Brittain said the forest fire danger index (FFDI) – which takes into account temperature, wind speed and humidity – reached its highest August level in just over 15 years at Albion Park. Nowra’s FFDI was the highest in 14 years.

Wind gusts of 109km/h and 104km/h were recorded at Bellambi and Nowra, respectively, on Wednesday morning.

It has been almost two years since Bellambi had a wind gust that strong.

The vigorous west to northwesterly winds came ahead of a cold front, which was due to arrive on Wednesday night.

The dangers posed by the strong winds were compounded by temperatures that climbed as high as eight degrees above average for this time of the year.

A maximum of 25.6 degrees was recorded at Bellambi, it was 24.5 in Albion Park and 23.5 at Nowra.

A fire weather warning was issued for the Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Greater Sydney and Greater Hunter fire districts late-morning.

Total fire bans were also issued in those areas – the earliest bans of the season in almost a decade, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS).

The Bureau of Meteorology’s NSW severe weather manager Simon Louis said the strong winds and dry conditions combined to cause very-high to severe fire danger across the Illawarra. 

The lack of recent rainfall and “very dry fuels” also contributed to the severe fire danger conditions, Mr Louis said.

“We haven’t had a fire weather warning for the Illawarra in August since 2009, and that again comes back to the very dry lead-in we’ve had to this season and the very dry state that the fuels are in,” he said.

While major fires burned in the Nowra and Ulladulla areas, fallen power lines did spark a blaze off Mount Brandon Road at Jerrara, west of Kiama, just before 9am.

RFS and Fire and Rescue NSW crews worked quickly to protect properties as gusty winds fanned the flames.

RFS district officer David Hitchens described the wind as “quite severe”.

“Winds that are above 100km/h … from multiple directions [makes it] very hard to contain a fire and the crews that were here today [Wednesday] did an extremely good job to do that,” Mr Hitchens said. 

Meanwhile, the wild winds saw NSW State Emergency Service (SES) crews respond to about 65 jobs across the Illawarra and South Coast on Wednesday. 

More than 30 of the jobs, most of which were for roof damage and fallen trees and branches, were in the Illawarra.

The remainder stretched across the Shoalhaven, as far south as Milton.

Buildings have been destroyed after two separate, out-of-control fires ripped through bush and burned quickly towards homes in the Shoalhaven on Wednesday.

Wild winds fanned fires in Bomaderry and at Mount Kingiman, west of Ulladulla, with emergency alerts issued for residents in both areas.

At Bomaderry, a bushfire burning between West Cambewarra Road and the Princes Highway flared about 11am.

The fire destroyed at least one shed in a residential backyard, as firefighters on the ground and in the sky worked to halt its spread.

The fire’s alert level was downgraded mid-afternoon, but it remained uncontrolled late on Wednesday.

Down the coast, residents in the Woodstock area, west of Ulladulla, were told it was too late to leave as a fast-moving fire approached.

One shed was confirmed lost in that fire, which was downgraded to a ‘watch and act’ alert level on Wednesday evening.

RFS building assessment teams have been deployed to the Shoalhaven to assess the property damage associated with both fires.

How the events of Wednesday unfolded.