Jasper resident Mike Day's property before and after the Jasper wildfire. Despite measures to fire-proof the home, a single red Adirondack chair is all that was left after the fire.Supplied
The Globe spoke to several Jasper residents this week as they contemplated their futures in the town devastated by wildfire. Here’s some of their stories:
All that’s left where Mike Day’s home once stood is a bright red Adirondack chair that has been warped by fire. The home was fireproofed with a sprinkler system on the roof and Hardie cement boards inside, but those measures proved no match for the wall of flames, reaching 100 metres high, that consumed the area.
Despite having no home waiting for him, Mr. Day said his livelihood depends on his return.
He is the owner of Evil Dave’s Grill, which appears unscathed by the wildfire, and intends to “try to salvage that” once he’s allowed back in the town. His other income stream, renting part of his home through Airbnb, is obviously impossible now and he is not eligible for regular employment insurance because he is self-employed.
Getting the restaurant up and running is the priority, he stressed, but it’s unclear when that will be possible. He needs a place to stay. His staff need places to stay. But most important of all, there needs to be a steady stream of visitors to keep Evil Dave’s doors open.
“There’s so many unknowns at this point,” said Mr. Day. “If Jasper doesn’t have visitors en masse, then the same businesses will not be able to survive.”
Stephen Nelson describes Jasper as the love of his life but says he might need to let her go.
The 65-year-old first visited Jasper in the summer of 1981 and immediately felt at home among the crystal-clear lakes, thundering waterfalls and dramatic mountain peaks. In the decades that followed, he longed to return but an opportunity didn’t present itself until 2008. After that, he jumped from room to room, renting what he could in the community, which has few long-term options.
Mr. Nelson finally found a place to call home last month at Pine Grove Manor, an independent seniors living complex, after waiting to be accepted for three years. But it burned down in the wildfire less than two weeks after he signed his lease, and with it some of his prized possessions, like a bible passed down from his mother.
“There it is, or there it was. Pine Grove Manor,” said Mr. Nelson as he toured the wreckage from inside a bus earlier this week. He said in an interview that there are too many unknowns for him to decide if he wants to go back.
“I’ll never not love you,” said Mr. Nelson of Jasper. “But if I don’t feel safe, I’m not moving back in.”
Patricia Street Deli owners Glen and Wendy Leitch at Patricia Street stand in the restaurant before the fire. Their home was spared, but the complex that houses their business did not survive the fire.
Supplied
Wendy and Glen Leitch say each day they wake up with more courage than the last to navigate the difficult road to recovery. While the wildfire that tore through Jasper spared their home, it bore down on the business complex that housed their family-owned Patricia Street Deli.
The couple doesn’t want to go back to Jasper until they are allowed to do so alone, rather than on buses full of people grieving their own personal losses. “The only person I want to be with in that moment would be my wife,” said Mr. Leitch. “My healing and Wendy’s will be when we go back.”
But Mrs. Leitch, at least at first, wasn’t sure she wanted to return.
“I cannot imagine getting up every day and walking downtown and seeing the devastation. I can’t do that,” she remembers telling her husband.
But it was remembering the community around them and the many visitors that passed by the deli’s red-checkered tables that changed her mind.
“It’ll be different,” she said. “But it’s not just the town, it’s the community.”
There’s no clear path to what comes next, but purchasing second-hand gear so that Mr. Leitch could referee hockey on the weekend felt like a step forward, they said Wednesday.
“To me, that’s exciting,” said Mrs. Leitch. “That’s a normal part of our life.”
Katie Potter has a plan in place: enroll her son in school, find a job and secure an apartment – just not in Jasper. She said it’s only fair to her son, who is entering Grade 3, that they settle into a routine in Edmonton instead of hinging their family’s future on the recovery of Jasper.
She said the biggest factor that guided her decision was that her family doesn’t have a home to return to. The apartment complex she had lived in with her son and spouse was among the casualties of the fire, which destroyed one-third of Jasper.
There was already a vacancy problem in town, she said, so finding a rental when they’re allowed back would be practically impossible.
“School starts in less than a month, so I just have to think about my kid,” said Ms. Potter. “I have family here and friends here. We’re going to find a place for now and see what the future brings.”
Jasper city Councillor Wendy Hall is planning her life month-by-month.
The first month after being evacuated will centre in Valemount, about 120 kilometres west of Jasper, where she and thousands of other evacuees sought refuge when they were forced from their homes. In those first few days, she focused more on others than herself, naturally being looked to as a leader because of her job. The grief of losing her home, and leaving her community, came later.
But she has remained optimistic the community will build back stronger than before.
As she enters the second month away from Jasper, she said she will remain in Hinton, an hour east, where the fire command centre is located. From here, she hopes to hold varying levels of government to account, advocating for whatever is needed to bring her family and her constituents back home.
“If I need to plan for one more month away, I will,” she said.
“But, in hopes I’ll be able to go home at some point.”