Jasper wildfire: Alberta government to look into mixed messaging in evacuation orders

The Alberta government said it has questions and will be looking into the messaging used in evacuation orders issued Monday night amid a wildfire in the Jasper region.

Just before 10 p.m. Monday, an evacuation order was issued for the Town of Jasper due to a wildfire south of the townsite.

At 10:18 p.m., the entire Jasper National Park was placed under evacuation order.

That order stated the fire was coming towards town and was expected to reach the community in five hours.

In another update just after 11 p.m., the Alberta Emergency Alert stated the fire was not, in fact, expected to reach the community in five hours — rather, that everyone in the town should be out within five hours.

3:49 Jasper media tour cut short as wildfire danger too high, flames rage near Highway 16

Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis was asked about the mixed messaging during a news conference the following morning.

“The original message was put out by the local municipality. Obviously, they would have made that decision, and the decision to use that messaging, based upon the information that they had at the time,” Ellis said.

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“As new information came in, they corrected it. But that decision is made by the local municipality in the incident command team in the Jasper area.”

Ellis said he and Premier Danielle Smith had questions themselves about the messaging. He said it’s something the province will look into.

“We’re going to have to inquire as to what is the data that the municipality used in order to make that decision,” Ellis said.

“We’re going to have to figure out if there is a better way, because … I think there’s a lot of people that were scared.”

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Global News reached out to the municipality, which deferred questions to Parks Canada. Global News has reached out to Parks Canada for comment. As of publishing, a response had not been received.

Smith said Monday it’s a new process to allow municipalities to directly access the emergency alert system, and this is the first time that Jasper has done so.

“We may need to have an additional step just to make sure that when information is going out, it’s communicated accurately so that it doesn’t cause that kind of panic,” Smith said.

“Nobody wants to be in a state of panic at 11 p.m., not knowing where they’re going to go.”

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Officials said Tuesday morning that the evacuation was progressing well. As of 10 a.m. local time, Alberta Emergency Management Agency managing director Stephen Lacroix said there had been no vehicle collisions due to the evacuation process.

2:17 Evacuees capture videos of Jasper wildfire

Officials encourage people to keep an eye on Alberta Emergency Alert for updates on the situation.

Lacroix said the system is nimble and meant to be wide-reaching in nature.

“Did everybody get that alert? I would say that everybody’s that got an LTE phone, or more modern, would have 100 per cent received that alert,” he said of the alerts that went out Monday night.

“Everybody who has downloaded the Alberta Emergency Alert application on their phone would have gotten that alert.

“Are there going to be some anecdotal evidence in between, (it’s) probable. But given the size of the town and the local authority’s involvement, including the police force or jurisdiction, I would say that most, if not all folks would have received that alert.”

Officials believe the wildfire south of Jasper was sparked by lightning.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 53 out-of-control wildfires burning in Alberta.

For the latest information on which areas in Alberta are under an evacuation alert or order due to a wildfire, visit the Alberta Emergency Alert website.

For the latest information on the wildfire status and danger across the province, visit the Alberta Wildfire website.

The latest information on fire advisories, restrictions and bans across the province can be found on the Alberta fire bans website.