Some evacuees near Wesley Ridge wildfire on Vancouver Island expected to return

Officials say some of the residents ordered evacuated because of the Wesley Ridge wildfire on Vancouver Island will be able to return to their homes on Wednesday evening.

Douglas Holmes, the emergency operations director for the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), said residents would be allowed back only once it was deemed safe to do so.

"I do want to emphasize that while some residents will be able to return home, the majority of people impacted will be remaining on evacuation order for the time being," he said in a news conference late Wednesday afternoon.

A full list of properties whose residents can return can be found on the RDN's website.

"We thank the residents very much for their patience as we've worked through this emergency together, and I hope we will see more downgrades in the days and weeks ahead," Holmes said.

As of Wednesday morning, almost 390 homes in the Regional District of Nanaimo were on evacuation order. Another 250 properties are on evacuation alert, meaning they must be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

CBC News has reached out to the RDN to find out how many homes had evacuation orders lifted Wednesday evening, and a spokesperson said those details would be provided on Thursday. All the homes where residents are able to return are now on evacuation alert.

The roughly 538-hectare Wesley Ridge fire on Vancouver Island is burning on the north shore of Cameron Lake, around 50 kilometres northwest of Nanaimo, B.C.

The B.C. Wildfire Service said crews made good progress on Tuesday in improving the containment of the blaze, guarding it from spreading to nearby homes and the Highway 4 corridor, which connects the island's east and west coasts.

The wildfire service said light rain fell on the fire on Tuesday, allowing firefighters to "expand containment," and night-vision helicopters worked the fire's perimeter overnight.

Officials said fire behaviour has been limited to "a low-vigour surface fire," but some spots have seen a higher burning intensity.

"There was very little fire activity overnight near residences on Wesley Ridge and west Cameron Lake area," said fire information officer Madison Dahl in the news conference on Wednesday.

Dahl said that crews were taking advantage of cooler conditions to directly attack the blaze, and she urged members of the public to stay out of active wildfire areas, including nearby lakes where helicopters and air tankers are refilling water.

"In order for wildfire suppression activities to continue safely and effectively, the public must stay out of active fire areas," she said.

Some residents have expressed concern that the Wesley Ridge fire could reach Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Park, a nearby temperate rainforest containing trees that have stood for 800 years, but the wildfire service says it is not under threat.

Rain only providing light reprieve

Light rain and higher humidity in British Columbia have tempered wildfire activity, allowing crews to douse more than 150 blazes in the last seven days.

At a news conference earlier Wednesday, officials said B.C. remains in its "core wildfire season," and while much of the province saw rain, the heat is expected to return by the weekend.

B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar urged caution, mentioning the thousands of dollars in fines handed out to campers disobeying campfire bans over the long weekend.

"That's unacceptable. This kind of activity puts people and livelihoods at risk," he said. "We have to do better. Please stay vigilant and follow the fire prohibitions in your area."

Cliff Chapman, the B.C. Wildfire Service's director of provincial operations, said the rain would only reset firefighting conditions "on a micro scale."

"So we get a couple of days to really actively use direct attack on our fires ... it gives us the ability to do that, but it doesn't knock down the hazard for the whole province for the rest of the fire season," he said.

Chapman said firefighters weren't seeing the prospect of a "season-ending" rain event by the end of August, and that the entirety of southern B.C. would heat up again by the weekend.

"There is no place in B.C. this year, and frankly probably any year, that is going to be safe from the threat of wildfires," he said.

"But fortunately with our increases ... in investments in technologies, we feel we are better prepared than we ever have been to address those [fire] starts when they come."

Evacuation order near Lytton lifted

In the Fraser Canyon, an evacuation order issued by the Lytton First Nation due to the nearby Cantilever Bar wildfire has been rescinded after firefighters reclassified the blaze as being held on Tuesday.

Evacuation alerts issued by the Lytton First Nation, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the Siska First Nation have also been lifted for areas around the fire.

British Columbia's emergency information agency still shows an active evacuation alert from the Skuppah Indian Band, and the community could not be reached immediately for an update on its alert status.

There are about 110 active wildfires burning across B.C. as of Wednesday evening, driven largely by hot and dry weather and tens of thousands of lightning strikes.