By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
UPDATE 4:45 p.m.:
First responders have been relocated to Hinton due to strong winds and significant fire activity, according to a Facebook post from Incident Commanders Katie Ellsworth and Christine Nadon. Firefighting personnel, incident command staff, and aircraft remain in the town.
Anyone who has not yet evacuated town must leave for their own safety, write Ellsworth and Nadon.
“This decision has not been made lightly. First responders dedicate their lives to the protection of people and communities. Given the intensity of fire behaviour being observed the decision has been made to limit the number of responders exposed to this risk.”
The south fire in Jasper National Park has grown over 4,000 hectares since yesterday evening, now totalling at least 10,800 hectares. It is roughly eight kilometres away from the Town of Jasper, according to Incident Commander Katie Ellsworth.
The north fire, which is about five kilometres away from town, is still about 270 hectares.
Rain is forecasted for this evening and into Thursday morning. Ellsworth says commanders anticipate a reduction in fire activity if Jasper does receive precipitation, but gusty conditions mean the fire will likely grow before then.
No timeline for re-entry
Ellsworth confirmed to media that the town has not been impacted by fire. She added that there is no timeline for re-entry, including for temporary visits to gather items that evacuees left behind.
“We understand that this is stressful. We do ask for your patience, and we will provide you with a timeline (once) you are able to return to retrieve the items that you may have left behind,” Ellsworth said.
In a Facebook post this afternoon, the Municipality of Jasper encouraged evacuees to prepare to stay elsewhere. They advise evacuees to make arrangements with friends or family if possible, or go to reception centres in Edmonton, Calgary, or Grande Prairie. Additionally, free camping for evacuees is available at Buck Lake in the County of Wetaskiwin, and at the Dr. Duncan Murray Recreation Centre Field in the Town of Hinton.
The Municipality also advises residents and business owners to call their insurance provider as soon as possible, and apply for Employment Insurance using their temporary address.
The status of structures outside of town – such as the Palisades Centre, Caribou Recovery Centre, and the HI Athabasca Falls Wilderness Hostel – is unknown at this time. Heavy smoke and aggressive fire behavior have made it unsafe for responders to access these structures, according to Ellsworth.
“In terms of the Palisades Centre, we can confirm that it has been impacted. Because of the fire behavior yesterday, we don’t know the extent of those impacts,” Ellsworth said. “We are hoping to be able to confirm those impacts as soon as we can, so that we can share that information both to the public and the business owners. But we do ask for your continued patience.”
Firefighters are taking steps to protect the town’s infrastructure in case the southern fire continues to move northward. This includes the installation of high-volume sprinklers on the south side of the Parks Canada compound, and around the southwest perimeter of town from Patricia Place to the entrance of Stone Mountain Village. Sprinklers will also be installed around Pyramid Bench from west to east. Additionally, firefighters are removing combustible material and dry vegetation from town today, Ellsworth added.
Ellsworth asks that the public look to Parks Canada, the Municipality of Jasper, and Alberta Wildfire for accurate information on the fire, rather than using other resources like NASA’s MODIS and FIRMS satellite imagery.
“At this time due to heavy, thick smoke conditions in Jasper, we cannot confirm the MODIS or FIRMS hits that you can see if you’re looking at the satellite imagery,” she said. “These satellites do indicate heat registers, and it’s not uncommon after a fairly aggressive burning day when things calm down for that heat to sink back down to the surface and be registered as a fire point.”
Alert hiccups
Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland, who also attended the press conference, thanked Jasper residents and visitors for their cooperation during the evacuation. However, he said he received reports this morning that the alert system used by the municipality did not work as intended.
“We gave out an emergency alert on our system – we use something called Voyent,” he told journalists. “It has come to my attention that some subscribers to that service did not receive the messages that we thought that they had received.”
Ireland added that the Alberta Emergency Alerts system worked as expected.
The Voyent Alert! glitch has been fixed since the municipality learned of it earlier this morning, according to Ireland.
“All of these incidents undergo an after-action debrief. The whole system will be reviewed and we will see whether any corrections have to be made to prevent this happening, either in our location or other locations with the same sorts of mass alert systems,” he said.
Highway 16 partially cleared
According to Drive BC, about 350 kilometres of Highway 16 has been cleared between Victoria Street and the B.C.-Alberta border, as of 11:01 a.m. today. There is still limited visibility due to smoke from 16 kilometres east of Tete Jaune to the Alberta border.
Highway 16 eastbound is closed from the Mount Robson Visitor Centre to the Alberta border. The westbound lane is open only for evacuation purposes. Drive BC anticipates an update to Highway 16 at 4:30 p.m. today.
