Homeowners in Ocean County who were forced to evacuate as a wildfire closed in on their neighborhoods are now allowed to return home.

One of those neighborhoods is in Forked River, close to the Garden State Parkway.

The Pheasant Run Retirement Community sits close to the northbound lanes of the parkway, which were filled with smoke and flames on Tuesday.

The plumes of smoke forced the evacuation of 440 homes within the retirement community.

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The neighborhood was thick with smoke, so much that it at times blocked out the sun and blue skies overhead.

It definitely scared those who lived there before firefighters were able to put down the flames.

Tom Dos Santos is one of the homeowners who evacuated.

He returned on Wednesday to a home that is safe but without power.

“I didn’t want to leave at all because I didn’t want to leave my house,” said Dos Santos. “When we saw the flames at the end of Llewelyn we decided to leave. There were some embers flying around, I guess I wasn’t as scared as I should’ve been.”

JCP&L had to de-energize the power lines in this area for safety reasons, but the utility is working as quickly as possible to get everyone restored.

The neighborhood is still smoky, but the threat of fire is gone.