The remains of restaurants and businesses in Jasper, Alta., on July 26. Officials are leaving it to residents to determine whether it is safe, or simply comfortable, to return to their homes.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Residents of Alberta’s beloved mountain town of Jasper will be allowed to return home on Friday, nearly a month after a wildfire destroyed one-third of the community, but services such as water and gas will be limited or unavailable in some areas, according to officials.
Jasper incident commander Christine Nadon said all residents will be allowed to return at once beginning at 7 a.m. Friday. But she agreed with a reporter who characterized the return as something of a “choose your own adventure,” with the onus on residents to determine whether it is safe, or simply comfortable, to live in their homes.
“Residents who still have homes standing in the affected areas should be ready for pretty significant service disruptions, and whether it’s habitable or not is for them to determine. All we’re saying is that there’s no risk to public safety, so we’re not going to keep them away from their properties,” Ms. Nadon said during a news conference Monday.
About 25,000 residents and visitors were forced to flee Jasper and the surrounding Jasper National Park on July 22 before a wildfire ripped through the town, damaging or destroying 350 structures, mostly residential. A wall of flames that stretched 100 metres high overwhelmed firefighters, but they managed to save critical infrastructure in the town, including schools and the hospital.
A more than 700-person strong crew has continued to fight the fire for weeks after it rolled through the town. Parks Canada, in an update on Monday, said 99 per cent of the fire’s north end was under control or contained. This was the section of fire posing the greatest threat to the community.
While much of Jasper’s critical infrastructure has been largely restored, such as natural gas and telecommunications, Ms. Nadon said water and sewage have only been brought back to about 30-per-cent capacity. Additionally, only basic emergency care will be available by Friday. Residents with complicated medical conditions have been advised not to return until the hospital is fully operational.
The west side of town, where most of the fire damage is concentrated, remains bare bones in terms of available services, added Ms. Nadon. She said re-entry is just the first step toward recovery, which will take the community many years.
Mayor Richard Ireland, in a message to residents on social media, said re-entry signals brighter days ahead and asked residents to return united in recovery, as they have been united in tragedy.
In the wreckage of the Jasper wildfires, residents see a need to create a community built to last
“The time for tears is not over; the pain, the grief, the loss, will last a lifetime. Yet, as we always knew they would be, brighter days are ahead. We’re going home,” he said.
“Impressively so many of you have already adopted the attitude of ‘build back better.’ We can; we must. Let us expand that attitude beyond buildings and infrastructure. Let us build back better in community: let us capture, retain and strengthen those fresh bonds so literally ‘forged in fire.’”
The town’s reopening will allow its roughly 5,000 year-round residents to properly assess their homes for damage, having only been able to view the devastation from inside buses on group tours until then. Ms. Nadon cautioned Jasperites that homes seemingly unscathed by the fire may still have significant internal damage from water or smoke.
Other homes, she added, have been fenced off for public safety reasons.
“You can’t count on spending your first night in Jasper,” she said. “Some people might be able to stay, some people may not, and everyone should be making their own decisions about that.”
Visitors will technically be allowed back into Jasper as well on Friday but are being asked to give business owners time to assess and re-establish their operations. It is unlikely that any accommodations will be open by the weekend. Meanwhile, trails, campgrounds and day-use areas in the surrounding Jasper National Park remain closed.
“Many risks remain in closed areas such as ash pits, reduced air quality, hazardous trees and hazardous waste requiring containment,” said Parks Canada incident commander Jonathan Large, also at the Monday news conference.
A detailed guide to re-entry will be released later in the week, but some preliminary information was posted on the Municipality of Jasper website on Monday. It noted that temporary housing is not yet available for residents who have lost their homes but conversations are continuing with other levels of government.
People who choose to stay in Jasper are advised to bring 72-hours worth of supplies, including food, drinking water, medications, charging cables and flashlights as access to grocery stores and other services will be restricted. N95 masks are also recommended to reduce exposure to ash and soot.
Other hazards that may be present in Jasper and the national park include: unstable structures and open pits; tight spaces that could collapse; sharp objects such as nails and metal; partially destroyed materials such as cleaning products, paint and batteries; and the presence of carbon monoxide.
“Please return to Jasper with extra caution,” states the webpage.