A wildfire in Jackson Township forced several families out of their homes for a few hours on Wednesday evening.

Barbara Ventre and Jean Paul Bergeron were two of the people who had to leave their homes on South Stump Tavern Road in a hurry.

"Oh, this was horrendous. Never been this close," said Ventre.

"Within a half hour he goes, ‘You're going to have to evacuate,’ and that changes everything right then. You load up, you go," said Bergeron.

From the time they first saw smoke until it was time to evacuate, Ventre and Bergeron never wavered in knowing their home would be OK.

"My daughter and I packed up important papers and all of our prescriptions and got the dog, grabbed everybody, and when they said, ‘Go,’ we were ready to go," said Ventre.

Twenty-four hours later, hotspots remained all along South Stump Tavern Road as crews gained the upper hand on the 350-acre fire fueled by record-dry conditions. Officials said it was 60% contained as of 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

"With the change in the weather…there's no dampness. You pick up leaves and they crunch in your hand like powder. It's going to be dangerous," said Bergeron.

Six homes were evacuated but those who fled were allowed back before midnight, ever thankful for the work of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and dozens of responding volunteers from all over Ocean and Monmouth counties.

"God bless our firefighters. I have a home to come back to because of all of our firefighters out here for the last two days," said Bergeron.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.