About an hour before Saturday's fire arrived at Chris Atkinson's Woodburn Road property west of Ulladulla, he snatched a glance at the thermometer.
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It read 46.5 degrees but things were about to get much, much hotter.
When the fire front arrived, it attacked a wooden ramp at the side of the shed.
"That area caught on fire and heated all the back of the shed up," Mr Atkinson said.
"We'd thought we were pretty safe. It had gone all around the bush and everywhere. Once this shed caught on fire we thought the other shed would go.
"We still don't know how it didn't."
Inside the burnt shed, steel girders were warped beyond recognition. Molten aluminium had pooled on the ground. Plastic water tanks behind the shed have been melted. A glass street lamp has melted into a grotesque shape.
Mr Atkinson, 70, who has lived at the property for 40 years, said the blaze was the worst he had seen.
"Certainly around here."
He said the efforts of his son, who had worked tirelessly preparing to defend the property, ensured the family home survived.
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