KELOWNA, B.C. (CP) - Hundreds of people in this hot Interior town snaked with famous Canadian vineyards went back to their homes after firemen battled back a forest fire that roared towards their homes. Bruce Smith, an information officer with Kelowna's emergency operations centre, said 528 people had registered with emergency social services overnight on Saturday after an evacuation order was issued.

Fire information officer Dale Bojahra said crews made amazing progress Sunday.

"We were very quick to bring some helicopters on the fire at first light. Shortly after we added a few after fixed wing air tankers," he said.

There were three separate aircraft working on the fire Sunday, including an air tractor much like a crop duster.

"Each plane has own little niche. The crop duster is great in steep terrain, it can go low and slow. The tankers did a fantastic job out there for us.

"There was definitely a marked change in the fire activity after they finished their job out there the fire sat right down and our ground crews could get at it."

By early afternoon Sunday, area residents had returned home. They remained on evacuation alert, meaning they should be ready to go if the fire explodes again.

Bojahra said the fire still has potential to cause trouble for residents. Crews were watching closely as winds picked up Sunday night.

The fire information service initially said the fire was between 40 and 50 hectares in size, but reduced their estimate to 25 hectares on Sunday after an aerial assessment in the daylight, said Smith.

Officials were "confident that these people can be allowed back into their homes, of course, we don't want to keep them out of their homes any longer than they have to be, but they are still on alert," Smith added.

A subdivision about five kilometres west of Kelowna was evacuated after the fire began at about 9 p.m. Saturday.

Forests Minister Rich Coleman said emergency crews were all too familiar with how to react to forest fires in the area after wildfires swept across the region in 2003, causing more than 30,000 people to be evacuated from their homes in the Okanagan.

"I think that this community knows how to handle this type of thing," he said.

"I think whatever we learned in 2003 has been applied."

Coleman praised the work of emergency crews.

"I think people should realize that these guys did a good job in moving quickly to make sure that they were on this fire last night."

Fire retardants have been laid down around the fire, he said.

"Right now we are basically hoping that Mother Nature and the weather co-operate with us," Coleman said.

Fire information officer Radha Fisher said the fire was not burning towards any homes on Sunday morning.

"The fire is close to homes, but it's not threatening them," she said.

Fisher said two air tankers and seven helicopters were fighting the fire, along with 38 firefighters on the ground, although more were on the way.

Heavy smoke initially made it difficult to fight the fire from the air.

"There might still be smoke but it's cleared enough to put our tankers on," said Fisher.

The cause of the blaze was still under investigation.

In 2003, much of B.C.'s Interior region was engulfed by wildfires.

Hundreds of homes were destroyed in Kelowna as fire swept through suburban neighbourhoods and hundreds of sawmill workers in the Barriere area north of Kamloops lost their jobs when a blaze destroyed a sawmill at Louis Creek.