The entrance way to Jasper National Park just west of Hinton, Alta is closed on July 23 as several forest fires are classified as out of control in the park and surrounding areas.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
The evacuation of residents and visitors from Jasper, Alta., is complete as wildfires continue to threaten the Rocky Mountain town, one of the country’s marquee tourist destinations. Remaining backcountry hikers in Jasper National Park were to be flown out via helicopter by Wednesday, officials said.
Police went door to door on Tuesday in Jasper, a historic town that fills with visitors each summer, to ensure the roughly 10,000 people living there evacuated toward British Columbia as a fire encroached from the south. Authorities estimate another 15,000 people were in Jasper National Park, which envelops Jasper, when officials imposed an evacuation order Monday evening.
Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland said the community and fire responders are under an “exceptional amount of stress and strain.”
Monday’s nighttime evacuation, he said, added another layer of anxiety, especially for parents whose children were already asleep, seniors and visitors unfamiliar with the area.
“This is an extremely complex situation that is rapidly evolving,” Mr. Ireland said Tuesday during a press conference with Parks Canada officials.
By Tuesday morning, the fire was about 12 kilometres south of the Jasper townsite and deemed out-of-control, meaning it was expected to keep growing, according to Christie Tucker, a spokesperson with Alberta Wildfire. Officials prepared for a challenging day, with wind in the forecast and more than 170 wildfires burning in the province. The fire in Jasper National Park is under federal jurisdiction.
Heather Alexander and her family were camping in the park when the emergency unfolded. They went to Jasper to pick up eggs and bread Monday evening and thought nothing of the helicopter with the water basket dangling below, because wildfires had been burning elsewhere in recent days. Then they saw flames on the side of the road as they made their way back to the Snaring River Overflow Campground, a short drive north of Jasper’s town centre.
“Police were just flying past us to get to the site to do traffic control or whatever and forestry pulling out their hoses,” Ms. Alexander said. “We saw a helicopter drop a bucket of water in front of us and then we drove the highway with flames on our left-hand side. It was amazing. It was so scary.”
Ms. Alexander said the flames doubled in size as they watched, and they could feel the heat from inside the car. They immediately began packing their belongings and warned other campers of the fast-approaching blaze. Soon, she said, forestry officials were whipping through the site with their lights on, honking their horns and banging on trailers to tell people to pack and leave.
Her family drove to Hinton, before fire closed that escape route. She said almost every space at the local Safeway, Walmart and Canadian Tire parking lot is filled with evacuees in campers, trucks and tour buses. She doesn’t know what comes next for the family – her husband, their two children, aged 8 and 5, a dog and a cat – who were visiting Alberta from their home in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
Their home province is also littered with wildfires, with the Antler Creek fire threatening Barkerville, a gold rush town turned national historic site. There were 413 wildfires in B.C. by Tuesday afternoon, and 110 of those started within the previous 24 hours, according to the province’s wildfire service. B.C. Wildfire said there were more than 38,000 lightning strikes on Monday and 20,000 in the 24 hours prior to that.
A photo taken during evacuation of Jasper National Park.Daniel Parker/Supplied
In Alberta, authorities instructed those leaving Jasper to go to evacuation centres in Grande Prairie and Calgary, although fire and smoke on both sides of the provincial boundary complicated the escape. To get to Grande Prairie, officials instructed evacuees to first go to Prince George, making the trip more than 900 kilometres. The escape route to Calgary, via Kamloops, is more than 1,000 kilometres.
Valemount, a B.C. town of about 1,000, opened its community hall to evacuees, but at 4:35 a.m. Tuesday said it was unable to accommodate any more people fleeing fire.
Authorities organized four buses, with the capacity to carry 45 people each, to transport evacuees to Calgary from Valemount on Tuesday. Two buses were scheduled to take evacuees to Grande Prairie from Prince George, while another bus was destined for Edmonton from Jasper, according to the municipality’s Facebook page.
Brian Oates, the general manager of the Valemount Pines Golf and RV Park, said about 500 evacuees packed his 46 campsites. More people filled the dozens of cars in the overflow parking lot, he said.
“Evacuees can come here and stay for free as long as they want until they’re safe to get home,” Mr. Oates said as he worked the grill on Tuesday morning, preparing burgers, hotdogs and breakfast for guests.
“We’re just trying to make sure that their worries are less than what they were,” he said.
Smoke rises from a wildfire burning in Jasper in this screengrab obtained from a social media video.JOE OLIVER/Supplied
Neh Jaiswal and her husband Siddharth Shah were picking up souvenirs in Jasper on Monday, on the second last day of a family trip. By 7:30 p.m., ash was drifting through the air and the sky had an orange glow. Helicopters were buzzing overhead, the couple said.
The family had been staying in Hinton, about 80 kilometres northeast of Jasper, but headed west as authorities shut down eastbound traffic. They left their luggage in Alberta, passed several raging fires near Kamloops, and arrived at their home near Vancouver Tuesday morning.
“It was pretty scary to see the scale of the fire, which was pretty huge,” Mr. Shah said.
Parks Canada is bringing in an incident management team, in addition to other firefighting resources and aircraft, in the coming days to battle the growing blaze in Jasper National Park. Katie Ellsworth, a fire management officer with Parks Canada, said helicopters on Tuesday were dropping water in high-priority areas and working to evacuate people from the backcountry.
Parks Canada did not provide an estimate on the number of backcountry hikers in the area.
Ms. Ellsworth said the agency is confident that people with valid backcountry reservations and permits have been evacuated but did not provide a number. She said they will be completing sweeps of less popular backcountry trails through to Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, individuals who do not have a permit and have not reserved their site, we don’t know that they’re there,” Ms. Ellsworth added.
Jasper National Park abuts Banff National Park to the south and is a prime attraction for tourists and locals. The Jasper townsite is thick with hotels, and the park has more than 2,000 campsites. The national park, the largest in the Canadian Rockies at around 11,000 square kilometres, is a popular spot for day trips and extended stays.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, speaking at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday, said she was “frightened and stressed” when she first received news of the evacuation. The initial emergency alert indicated fire would reach Jasper in five hours; authorities later clarified that locals had five hours to evacuate.
Alberta instructed people to leave the town at 9:59 p.m. Monday and expanded the evacuation order to the entire park about 20 minutes later.
Ms. Smith acknowledged the mountain community is still under significant threat.
“If worst case scenario happens, they’ll be in real trouble in a few days but we’re going to do whatever we can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she said.