By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
Parks Canada held a press conference this morning to provide what little updates they can on the Jasper complex fire, but specifics as to which structures in town remain intact are still unavailable.
The south fire reached town yesterday shortly before 6:00 p.m. MDT (5:00 p.m. PDT), and continues to burn now, according to Director of Parks Canada’s National Fire Management Program Pierre Martel.
“Despite the ongoing determined and courageous collective efforts of all the partners involved – including Parks Canada team members, the Town of Jasper, and Alberta Wildfire – it is with heavy hearts that we report this aggressive and fast-moving fire continues to burn in Jasper National Park,” Martel said. “Although we do not have specific details, we do know that multiple structures, including a number of businesses and homes in and around the Town of Jasper, have been lost.”
Martel later added that while he can’t confirm the specific extent of the damage, it is significant.
At the time of the press conference, Martel did not have an update on the status of the wildfires raging outside of town. In a Facebook post earlier this morning, Jasper National Park wrote that the area received rain overnight, but “it is not enough to have made a meaningful impact to the overall wildfire situation, which remains out of control.”
Last night, firefighters without self-contained breathing apparatuses were evacuated to Hinton. However, a number of structural firefighters remain in town to preserve what structures they can, according to Martel.
“We know many residents and business owners will be anxious to hear about the status of their own businesses,” Martel added. “We ask that people respect the area closure. We’ll be able to provide further updates and more information as soon as conditions allow.”
Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland echoed these comments.
“We simply need to have verifiable information,” Ireland said. “Until we can verify from people on the ground, our stance is that it would be irresponsible to try and confirm things based on unverified facts.”
“We are as anxious as anybody to get detailed, verified information so we can share it with other residents. But until we have that, we have nothing to share.”
While Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told journalists in an earlier press conference that there is structural damage in 30 to 50 per cent of the town, Parks Canada was unable to confirm these numbers, according to External Relations Manager Natalie Fay.
Chief of the Valemount and District Volunteer Fire Department, Rick Lalonde, messaged The Goat with his assessment of the situation.
According to him, the fire boss in Jasper estimated 25 per cent of structures had been destroyed when volunteers from Valemount arrived last night. Since then, more structures have been destroyed due to strong winds carrying sparks.
“Today there are 60 fire trucks, 6 pieces of equipment, 160 firefighters mopping up structures and burning brush,” Lalonde said.
However, Parks Canada reminds people to take images and information from social media with a grain of salt. In response to a question from The Goat about whether Parks Canada is regulating the sharing of images and information from people on the ground, Fay said the organization is not attempting to stop the spread of images on social media. Instead, they hope people will consult official sources like the Parks Canada website or Jasper National Park Facebook page.
“Obviously, there are images circulating (social media). What we are doing to try to manage that is to provide as many updates with good, confirmed information as possible,” she said. “We are doing our best to get information out of the incident, but right now we are still dealing with a very volatile situation and we have to focus on that. We are working on getting confirmed information, and we will put information out as soon as possible.”
