The last 24 hours have been the quietest on the front lines of the wildfires in British Columbia, but hundreds of properties remain under evacuation orders in the Central Kootenay area where anxious residents hope for the best.

A video from New Denver, where some of the evacuees from Silverton are staying, shows a wall of smoke from the wildfires choking the air and obscuring any view of their village.

Tanya Gordon, the mayor of Silverton, said, "The smoke has been so bad, in fact, here over the past week... Everyone here is suffering from coughing now because it’s so thick."

The Ailwin Creek fire, which the mayor said was two kilometers from Silverton in the last report, forced her community to evacuate. But she said not everyone has left.

She said, "It seems there’s a bit of reluctance to leave."

She explained, "I think there are a lot of people who feel that there won't be anyone to protect their property and I can assure them that we have many fire departments from all over British Columbia here."

Dan Seguin, the director of the RDCK emergency operations center, said, "When we ask individuals to leave, it’s based on our concerns for their safety, our concerns for the safety of our firefighters, and the operational needs to get people out of the area sometimes so that we can work effectively."

Seguin said the regional area is dealing with a number of wildfires, with roughly 555 properties under evacuation orders and more than 1000 properties on evacuation alert.

Gordon said, "It’s devastating to see that."

She added, "We live in such a beautiful area and I’m so afraid to see what the aftermath will look like."

Meanwhile, officials near Golden, where up to six homes have been lost this week, said the wildfires have not grown significantly.

There are currently more than 400 active wildfires in British Columbia, with more than half of them out of control, including the Shetland Creek fire near Spences Bridge.

Tricia Thorpe, the regional director for the Thompson Nicola region, flew over the fire on Thursday.

She said, "Looking from the air, you can see the intensity of the fire and that everything is completely burned."

But she also said that crews have been working hard to contain the fire.

She added, "You can see miles and miles of guard work being done by the BC Wildfire Service."

The fire covers more than 23,000 hectares and is still out of control.