By Abigail Popple
Incident Command have confirmed in a Facebook post that Jasper’s critical infrastructure – including the hospital, emergency services building, schools, activity centre and wastewater treatment plant – have been successfully protected.
However, some homes and businesses have been lost.
“The most significant structural damage is concentrated on the west side of town, southwest of Miette Avenue,” the post reads. “Firefighting efforts have prevented significant damage to much of the infrastructure in the east end of town.”
Outside of town, a number of bridges have been damaged, such as the Moberly Bridge and the Old Fort Point Bridge. Other bridges along the Icefields Parkway still need to be assessed for structural damage.
“These impacts will slow down access to the Maligne Lake and Highway 93 and it will take time for a full damage assessment to take place in these areas,” says the post.
Fires have merged
The north and south fires merged together yesterday due to winds blowing at a speed of over 100 kilometres per hour. As of writing, Parks Canada does not have an updated size of the fire.
Rain and cooler temperatures have subdued the fire activity, but it is still out of control, according to the post. Crews are making the most of the cool and wet conditions while they still can.
The Incident Management Team is now supported by Canada Task Force 2, a federal emergency response team.
The team has “diverse capabilities to support impacted communities across Canada responding to large-scale events, emergencies and disasters,” and will support wildfire response and recovery, according to the post.
Another update will be provided today before 10 p.m. MDT (9:00 p.m. PST), the post concludes.
