Some of the 125 residents ordered out of the Bonaparte Lake area due to a large forest fire have elected to stay while crews battle the blaze, a spokesman for the TNRD said Thursday.

Sukh Gill, director of emergency operations for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, said those properties are on the east side of the lake, well away from where the 110-hectare Mayson Lake fire is burning.

At this point, there is nothing to suggest people’s lives are in jeopardy, he said. An evacuation order for properties on the west side of the lake was downgraded to an alert late Thursday afternoon.

“We can go in there and advise people to leave, but we can’t force them to leave. We haven’t in the past,” he said. “Most people, when they do see fire, leave according to the order.”

An evacuation order was issued within hours of a lightning strike sparking the blaze Wednesday night. Gill said the order was recommended because the fire burned so aggressively.

Those residents were expected to report to an Emergency Social Services centre in Kamloops Wednesday night, but no one showed up.

TNRD information officer Liz Cornwell said the majority of the properties are summer or rental homes and some of the evacuees are believed to have returned to their permanent residences. The emergency centre was shut down by 2 p.m. Thursday.

Gill said emergency centres aren’t expensive to operate. Most of the $500 to $700 it costs to run an overnight operation like the one at the Interior Savings Centre pays for security and phone lines. Volunteers staff the centres.

That money is reimbursed to the TNRD by the province, said Gill.

“It’s a procedure that goes hand in hand when an evacuation is issued,” he said.

Fire information officer Michaela Swan said the blaze was uncontained as of Thursday afternoon. A team of 30 firefighters and six helicopters fought to change that.

Air tankers, including the Martin Mars, focused on protecting structures on the east side of the fire Wednesday. Swan said that was done by dumping fire retardant to slow its growth. The Martin Mars dropped water on the smoke and flames, cooling the fire and raising the relative humidity near the fire’s edge.

The fire is burning about 22 kilometres away from Barriere.