A wildfire that’s destroyed hundreds of structures in the town of Jasper, Alta., and continues to burn out of control in the national park could still be burning months from now, a Parks Canada official says.
“This fire is the largest one that Jasper National Park has recorded in the last 100 years,” Landon Shepherd, a deputy incident commander with the federal agency, told a news conference on Saturday afternoon in nearby Hinton, Alta.
“We’re going to be working on this wildfire, we expect, over the next three months at least. What the last five years has taught us is that the fire season in Jasper tends to last well into the fall.”
Much of the province has received rainfall, which has significantly helped firefighting, including in the national park, said Melissa Story, Alberta Wildfire provincial wildfire information officer, during a virtual news conference Sunday afternoon.
“This was a good weekend for firefighting,” Story said, noting that conditions is forecasted to change in the coming week.
The Jasper Wildfire Complex is one of 141 total wildfires burning in Alberta as of 2:15 p.m. MT Sunday, according to the Alberta Wildfire dashboard. Officials said the Jasper fire is still the highest priority, however.
An estimated 17,100 Albertans have been evacuated due to wildfires as of Sunday, said Joe Zatylny, deputy managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, during Sunday’s provincial update.
Jasper Bylaw has been retrieving pets from evacuees’ homes and delivering them to the Hinton & District SPCA. Workers and volunteers are working hard to care for the incoming variety of pets.
About 25,000 people were evacuated from Jasper National Park earlier this week due to wildfire, but officials have previously said many of them were visitors. The nearly 5,000 residents of Jasper were all evacuated.
Parks Canada has estimated that close to a third of the town’s structures were damaged by the wildfire, with 358 of the 1,113 structures destroyed.
The Municipality of Jasper released an updated map and list of damaged or destroyed properties on Saturday afternoon.
Members of the media are bussing into Jasper Sunday afternoon for another guided tour of the community.
In an online update, Parks Canada said fire suppression has been progressing well in the Jasper townsite, and it anticipated all remaining fires there would be extinguished on Saturday.
Structural protection sprinklers are being relocated, from previously…
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