The wildfire early Sunday morning. (Sumbitted by Cody Howitt)

They grabbed family photos and pets, and pushed aside thoughts of possibly losing everything else, say some of the 11,000 residents forced to flee their homes in a subdivision threatened by a raging forest fire.

"It's scary, you know," Wilf Carey said Sunday as he went in to register at an evacuee centre in Kelowna, B.C.

"You had to get out. We just did what we were told. We just picked up our belongings and got out."

Carey's house was among 6,500 homes deemed in danger and ordered evacuated.

Fred Smith sat in a lawn chair in the evacuee centre parking lot watching the fire rage Sunday.

"I went to bed and about three-quarters of an hour after that, my daughter came over and said, `You've got to get out. They're evacuating the place."'

He said he ran into the bedroom and told his startled wife they'd have to leave immediately.

The Smiths grabbed some family pictures, their wedding picture, their dogs and all their prescription medication.

They slept in their van overnight and aren't sure what they'll do if they're away from home for long because they don't have friends with whom they can stay.

Hotel rooms throughout Kelowna and surrounding Okanagan cities quickly booked up Saturday night, leaving no vacancies.

No rain in forecast

The fire seen from Sarson's Beach on Saturday afternoon. (Dave Walker)

By Sunday, helicopters, air tankers and firefighters from Kelowna, Summerland, Penticton and the B.C. Forest Service were fighting the 3.5-square-kilometre blaze raging behind the Glenrosa subdivision.

The winds died down somewhat overnight and cooler temperatures were predicted for Sunday, but Elise Riedlinger, a spokeswoman for the B.C. forest fire service, said it was impossible to say when crews might finally win the upper hand.

"They're definitely going to be working as hard as they can," Riedlinger said.

Temperatures were predicted to be high again Monday and Tuesday and there is no rain in sight.

Residents were asked to turn off their sprinklers and automated watering systems to conserve water for the firefighters.

Police officers were also advising boaters on Okanagan Lake to stay out of the area. Too many of them were crowding near the shore to get a look at the fire Saturday, he added.