'Flames 30 feet high': Firefighters scramble to Fairy Meadow, North Wollongong fires

Strong winds started whipping up the flames around 3pm, with 91 separate triple-0 calls received for a fire burning off Memorial Road at Elliotts Road.

Luke Tubridy saw firefighters training hoses on the blaze while on his way to do the after-school pickup.

On the way back home with his child Sam, he noticed the fire had jumped four lanes of traffic on Memorial Drive, spreading to the fringe of the rail corridor just north of Fairy Meadow train station.

"We called out to the police officer there and later they got a (fire) crew over there," he said.

"They've seemingly put this out on the (original) side a couple of times.

"But 10 minutes later there were flames 30 feet high again. It seemed like it was a spot fire to begin with, but it spread pretty quickly. "

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Mr Tubridy said he saw embers in the air as far away as Storey Street, just east of Memorial Drive.

The fire appears to have started in scrubland lining a pedestrian alleyway off Clifford St, west of Memorial Drive.

Fairy Meadow resident, Hayley Psaila, said fires had started at the same spot in the past, though never on such a hot and windy day.

"Normally they can contain it, but the wind hasn't helped it," she said.

"It's a pretty bad one today."

One of two northbound lanes is closed in Fairy Meadow as firefighters battle the blaze.

A grass fire also started burning off Cliff Road in North Wollongong at around the same time.