BAYVIEW - Cape Horn Road residents can return home today starting at 8 a.m., but will have to take extra safety precautions while firefighting efforts continue.

"There continues to be a voluntary evacuation. The purpose of the evacuation is to provide firefighters as much time as possible to complete mop up operations around homes, along the fire containment lines, and along roadways," the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office announced in a press release at 9:40 p.m. Wednesday. "Fire activity and conditions will dictate whether residents will be allowed to stay. If residents do not feel safe staying there, they are asked to please leave the area."

The release said the Cape Horn Road area will be repopulated for resident access only. Non-residents will be allowed into the area at a later date.

Deputies will continue to staff traffic control points, and will be at the intersection of Cape Horn Road and Cottonwood Court, just off Perimeter Road, to check residents in, issue access passes and give information on what to expect. Residents will need to display the access pass for continued access to their properties.

"We are asking residents to only go into their residence and limit their travel for several days to lessen the chance of an accident," the release said. "Travel will be restricted between the hours of 7 to 9 a.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.. Fire trucks will be traveling in and out during these hours. This will lessen competition for the roads, resulting in a safer situation for drivers."

Meanwhile, conditions on the mountain continued to improve, but the situation is still dangerous.

The fire was downgraded for the second day in a row Wednesday night to 1,155 acres and 40 percent contained, according to public information officer Geremy Olson.

He said infrared mapping technology has helped fire commanders narrow in on the size of the fire every evening.

"In order to call it contained, firefighters have to be confident it won't jump the fire lines," Olson said. "Our goal as firefighters is to get them home to as safe of an environment as possible."

While residents will be allowed to return, Olson said fighting the fire will continue for quite a while as crews mop up hot spots. They also have to restore the fire lines back to their original state and deal with other utility issues.

Kootenai Electric made great progress on Wednesday replacing burnt power poles and lines.

"They are optimistic that power should be restored by Thursday morning," Olson said in a press release. "Crews continued building containment lines and conducting burnout operations along the fire perimeter. Helicopters supported ground operations by dropping water to strengthen fire lines and cool hotspots."

The release said rolling rocks and falling debris pose a significant risk to residents travelling on Cape Horn Road.

Olson said firefighters continue to face steep terrain issues like rock slides and trees burning internally that fall and roll down the hill. He said there are also some mine shafts on the hill and fiber-optic cable that they have to avoid damaging.

He said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. While pictures are emerging in social media outlets that appear to show the cause of the fire, he cautioned people to wait for all the facts.

"It's easy to jump to conclusions," he said, explaining that he once investigated a fire in North Dakota that firefighters were sure started in a backyard campfire pit.

"It appeared like an escaped campfire, but it turned out to be a squirrel that was fried by a transformer," he said.

Ultimately, Olson said people just need to be extra careful when recreating outside in these conditions.

"This is when things that don't normally start fires, start fires," he said, adding that he has been on fires that were started by someone digging post holes with a set of posthole diggers. "All it took was a spark."

Before the decision was made to allow residents to come home, at least 100 evacuees were escorted to their homes on Wednesday to search for pets and gather medications they had to leave behind on Sunday.

According to Shoshana Cooper with the Panhandle National Forest, residents and property owners on Cape Horn were allowed past the roadblock on Highway 54 Wednesday. Firefighters and police escorted them to their homes.

The escorts had to stop for a couple of hours Wednesday while firefighters had to remove some dangerous trees and a small rockslide that occurred around 2 p.m.

Still, Lucy and Jim Squire, who live at the very end of Cape Horn Road, were able to get in and see their home.

"The house is OK, but there is still quite a bit of firefighting going on around the house," Lucy said, adding the firefighters put out a fire on their dock. "We were fortunate they had fire command on the water."

She said they were also fortunate to have a metal roof on their home.

"We actually had a dark spot up on the roof," she said. "The good Lord was with us. We've done a lot of praying."

Otter to tour Cape Horn Fire

BOISE - Gov. Butch Otter will travel to North Idaho to be briefed on the status of the Cape Horn Fire this morning.

Weather and conditions permitting, the governor will take an aerial tour of the fire via Idaho National Guard Blackhawk helicopter. When he lands, Otter will receive a briefing from the incident commander and fire staff at the Incident Command Post (ICP) located near Bayview. Shortly after the briefing concludes, he will meet with the media. Following that, he is expected to visit with firefighters.