VANCOUVER - Summer may be coming to an end, but British Columbia's forests minister says the province isn't out of the woods just yet when it comes to raging wildfires.

B.C. has already seen more than 2,900 wildfires since April, about 1,000 more than average. Those fires have spanned 2,200 square kilometres and have forced the province to raise its forest firefighting budget from $62 million to $409 million.

Though temperatures have begun to dip as the days grow shorter, Pat Bell said his ministry is still recording significant wildfire activity.

"Just because children are heading back to school and summer is coming to an end doesn't mean the public should stop being extremely careful with open flame of any type," Bell said Thursday in a statement.

"We can't let our guard down. Conditions can change quickly."

Kim Steinbart, a fire information officer with the B.C. Forest Service, said 121 fire starts were recorded Wednesday and more were documented Thursday.

"What we have seen over the last 48 hours is quite a bit of lightning activity across the province and this is creating a number of new fires around the southern portion, particularly in the southeastern part of the province," she said.

While the lightning has been an unwelcome sight, Steinbart said fire crews have been helped by the rain.

"In the Kamloops area, most of those fires did receive some rainfall so they have been reporting decreased fire activity and are making good progress."

One of those fires near Kamloops is the Martin Mountain blaze, near the town of Pritchard. The 22-square-kilometre fire is about 50 per cent contained.

Fire information officer Lindsay Carnes said the Martin Mountain fire was hit by heavy rainfall Thursday morning, though conditions then took a turn for the worse.

"The rain has now subsided and it's quite windy, which will work to dry out the fuels a lot quicker than if there was no wind," she said, adding that winds reached up to 70 kilometres an hour.

Carnes said crews were working to set up fire guards in particularly steep and rugged terrain Thursday when they were forced to call it quits.

"That terrain became quite slick and was unsafe for our firefighters to work on and heavy equipment that were on site were getting stuck because it turned to mud and clay," she said.

"So we ended up pulling all of our workers off the fire for the afternoon. We also had a group of firefighters regularly working overnight, and the night shift will not be happening."

Carnes said crews will reassess the scene Friday morning.

The Martin Mountain fire has forced about 250 people to evacuate their homes. Another 180 people remain on evacuation alert, meaning they could still be forced out of their homes.

Another 100 residents had to flee their properties due to the Kelly Creek fire, west of Kamloops and near the town of Clinton. That fire is estimated at 195 square kilometres and is not at all contained.

An evacuation alert was lifted Thursday for about 200 residents threatened by the Community Lake Plateau fire, north of Kamloops.

Bell said campfire bans remain in place for areas covered by the Kamloops and Cariboo fire centres.

Backcountry restrictions are also in effect for some parts of the province. Bell said those who venture into the backcountry are asked to be careful, particularly with the start of hunting season.

Enforcement officers will be out this weekend to issue tickets to those who ignore any bans or restrictions.