Helicopters hover in front of a mountain after dropping fire retardant on a wildfire burning out of control in Kelowna, B.C., last week. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

More than 1,000 residents of the northwest shore of Okanagan Lake will be able to return home Thursday, more than a week after they were ordered to leave, after firefighters finally got the Terrace Mountain fire under control.

At 8 a.m. PT, the evacuation order for all but 13 residents of the Fintry High Farms area was to be lifted.

However the Terrace Mountain fire is only 85 per cent contained by 36 kilometres of fireguard, and with the hot, dry weather forecast to continue, about 3,000 residents under an evacuation alert have been warned to be ready to leave again on a moment's notice if the fire flares up.

A long stretch of record-breaking hot weather has turned much of B.C.'s forest into a tinderbox, and electrical storms have set off hundreds of fires across the province, which crews continue to try to bring under control.

The fire danger rating remains high or extreme for most of the province and campfire and open fire bans are in place for most areas.

Fires still burning

In the southwestern Interior, the Mt. McLean fire near Lillooet has grown to 1,800 hectares and is still zero per cent contained, say fire officials. An evacuation order for that fire has been extended to residents at Puck Creek and remains in place for the community of Shalalth.

Close to the Alberta border, a team of fire specialists has been brought in from that province to help fight a wildfire burning southwest of Valemount. That fire at Pleasant Creek has grown to 425 hectares and is still zero per cent contained, but is still not threatening any homes.

And in the northwest of the province, a fire near Kispiox has grown to 75 hectares, but is now 20 per cent contained after firefighters spent the night building a fireguard.

Fire officials said the fire would be visible to people living in the Kispiox Valley and the Hazelton area, but no homes are in danger.