Many of the roughly 450 people forced out of their homes by the Ross Moore Lake fire are now being allowed to return.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has scaled back its orders for 327 properties which are now on an evacuation alert rather than an order. An evacuation order remains in place though for 18 properties in the area.

TNRD Area L Director – and Knutsford area rancher, Doug Haughton, says the change in orders and alerts is welcome news for people who live south of Kamloops.

“I believe five are up on the Lac Le Jeune area and 13 in and around upper Long Lake and upper Edith Lake area but its a far cry from where we were a week ago,” he said.

Residents who choose to return home are being told to stay vigilant, as the Ross Moore Lake fire is still burning out of control. Should conditions change, they’re being told that an evacuation alert or order could be reinstated.

“They put a great effort in, the Fire Service. We had great bomber service from Saturday afternoon on,” Haughton added. “The locals also come out in droves in that Long Lake area to save houses. Probably four houses there that could have gone if the locals hadn’t banded together.”

“Then we had the structure patrol group doing a great job on Edith Lake Road and Long Lake Road.”

The City of Kamloops has also rescinded its evacuation alert for the Knutsford area, saying the threat of the Ross Moore Lake Fire in the area no longer poses an imminent risk to the safety of residents and properties.

Its Emergency Operations Centers will remain activated throughout the weekend to ensure the City can respond quickly to changing conditions.

“Kamloops Fire and Rescue will continue to provide support to BC Wildfire Service with crews performing overnight tactical patrol and spot fire suppression,” the City said. “This support has been requested for Friday and Saturday nights and may extend beyond that if required.”

Forrest Tower with the BC Wildfire Service says favourable weather has allowed crews to build fire guards close to where the fire is burning.

“That has allowed us to get a lot of good containment across most of the perimeter, which has led to us being able to recommend to the various local authorities that we can shrink those alert and order areas,” Tower said.

“Still an order in effect but much closer to the fire and that just reflects minimized risk of the fire growing at a rapid rate of spread in any direction.”

The lightning-caused fire, which ignited a week ago, is now estimated to be 2,721 hectares – 27.2 square kilometres – in size because of more accurate mapping of the fire’s perimeter.

“Going forward, in the next couple of days, as long as this favourable weather holds up for us – and that really just means not a lot of wind – we’ll be looking to keep securing those containment lines even more,” Tower said.

“Really at this point its just making sure our containment is good and this fire will then get moved to the being held stage at some point. It’s a large fire so getting it completely out is definitely going to be weeks of work but a good direction in terms of being held status.”

– With files from Victor Kaisar