It could be next Tuesday before evacuated residents of Fort McMurray, Alta., can return home.

Almost 7,000 residents have been displaced due to a nearby wildfire while the rest of the community remains under an evacuation alert.

Overnight, the fire moved to within five kilometres of the main southern route out of the municipality and had grown to more than 200 square kilometres but is holding.

Other fires across Western Canada have also forced residents out of their homes.

In northeastern British Columbia, a widening area remains under an evacuation order around Fort Nelson, a town of almost 5,000.

Although cooler temperatures and higher humidity were expected to dampen the potential for the fires to spread.

And in Manitoba, about 500 people remained out of the remote northwestern community of Cranberry Portage.