JASPER – Wildfires burning north and south of Jasper National Park’s townsite are closing in as Parks Canada incident management teams focus on protecting visitors and residents still remaining in the park, as well as critical infrastructure.
In the latest update as of press time, Parks Canada officials said the larger wildfire south of the Jasper townsite grew overnight Tuesday (July 23) to 10,800 hectares and is now about eight km away. A 270-hectare fire five km north of the mountain town is also still classified as out-of-control, but has not grown since Tuesday.
A perfect storm of a lightning outbreak Monday night that is believed to have ignited the fires, exceptional heat and dryness, and high winds led to what wildfire officials are calling “aggressive, blow-up fire behaviour.”
“We did see some aggressive fire behaviour during the day [Tuesday] and that fire behaviour did continue throughout the night,” said Katie Ellsworth, a fire management officer with the Jasper field unit.
About 260 firefighters, two water tankers, one off-road water supply, 13 fire trucks and nine aircraft have kept fires from touching the townsite but Parks Canada has confirmed damage to infrastructure along the Icefields Parkway, otherwise known as Highway 93 North.
Extent of the damage is still being assessed as heavy smoke clears.
“Once we are able to access the area safely, either from the air or from the ground, we will provide further information on structural loss once those impact assessments are complete,” said Ellsworth.
“We can confirm that there is infrastructure down there that consists of Parks Canada facilities, campgrounds, day-use areas, washroom facilities, picnic areas, as well as power lines. But again, we can’t confirm at this time what’s been impinged or impacted and the level or extent of those impacts.”
Raw footage of Highway 16 from #jasper toward #Hinton under pilot vehicle escort early Tuesday morning (July 23) during the raging #wildfires .
— Matthew Thompson (@Matthewthomp_) July 24, 2024
Video credit T. Vegh pic.twitter.com/gN4fOOOvgH
Parks Canada said so far 245 people in the backcountry have been flown out by helicopter and evacuations are progressing. Parks also confirmed in a Tuesday update that everyone had been evacuated from the Jasper townsite, however, there are still some remaining who are not responding to wildfires.
Jasper Mayor Ken Ireland said those people include a well-known local caterer – Glenda the Great Catering Ltd. – helping to feed first responders, as well as municipal staff dealing with infrastructure needs.
“I can’t give you an entire list, but you get the picture; it’s a select, small number and they are doing the work that needs to be done to support the first responders and others who have remained in the community for essential work,” he said.
The wildfire north of the townsite is located between the transfer station and Jasper airstrip, and is burning on both sides of Highway 16. The south wildfire is located near Kerkeslin Campground and follows Highway 93 north to Horseshoe Lake.
“This wildfire crosses Highway 93 a few kilometres south of Wabasso Campground and the northeast extent of this wildfire is near Wabasso Lake,” said Ellsworth, who noted Parks is working hard to keep fires from reaching the townsite.
The federal agency currently has its incident management team fighting the fires, with support from Alberta Wildfire and the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
Fire crews are removing flammable vegetation within the boundary of the Jasper community, with officials also removing and cleaning properties of combustibles such as propane tanks.
A high-volume 12-inch sprinkler system is also being deployed at the southern part of the townsite. Parks is assessing where to create fireguards using heavy equipment.
“Fire specialists are currently planning those lines out. I anticipate those plans will be ready by the end of this afternoon, so that we can start putting in those containment features to the southern flank or wherever they get planned – most likely in the southern portion of the community,” said Ellsworth.
“We are also planning other sprinkler lines up towards the western flank of our community, near the Pyramid Bench area. That’s going to extend from west to east to protect the properties and the infrastructure up there.”
Critical infrastructure, including water and wasterwater facilities, backup generators, the 911 dispatch centre, as well as locations for the Parks Canada’s incident command staff are already protected with sprinkler systems.
Parks is also working with CN Rail to patrol tracks north of the townsite with specialized water traincars, extinguishing spot fires and cooling down areas along the tracks so the company can continue rail operations.
“This is a dynamic and evolving situation. Things are changing minute-to-minute,” said Ellsworth.
Parks Canada said its evacuation team, which has one to two helicopters at its disposal, will continue to evacuate backcountry visitors throughout the day Wednesday (July 24).
Ellsworth could not confirm how many registered backcountry users were still in the national park, but said that information is known to the evacuation team. She noted rescuers are now directing attention to lower priority areas such as the Brazeau, and north and south boundary trails, which are lower priority due to distance from the active wildfire area.
As the situation progresses, those remaining in the townsite not responding to the wildfires will also continue to be kept informed of fire danger and encouraged to evacuate if risk to safety increases.
The Municipality of Jasper said an after-action review of how evacuations were handled will also take place once there is capacity. It was reported that some who were subscribed to the alert system used – Voyent Alert – did not receive notification to evacuate.
There was also mixed messaging Monday (July 22), at the time of the evacuation alert, around 10 p.m., about how soon the fire was expected to reach the Jasper townsite.
It was first reported via an Alberta Emergency Alert that fire would encroach on the town within five hours. This was corrected about 45 minutes later to state residents had five hours to evacuate.
Ireland said it is not yet known how the miscommunication happened.
“The short answer is, we don’t yet know how that error occurred. We do know that, as soon as it was identified, it was corrected,” he said.
“For a mistake of that nature, although in the long run, it may have increased levels of anxiety of people, it did not negatively impact the evacuation of the town.”
Parks Canada wildfire officials noted this is one of the largest wildfire events in Jasper National Park’s recorded history at over 10,000 hectares burned, so far. The Chetamon wildfire of 2022 burned about 6,000 hectares.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
