A wildfire evacuation order remains in effect for Jasper National Park as crews continue to work on hot spots and to better fortify the townsite against the risk from fires burning in the area after a blaze entered the community last week.
In an update posted to the Parks Canada website late Monday night, officials provided an update on how that work is progressing, announcing that a 12-inch, high-volume sprinkler system has been set up along the community fireguard “as the primary defence mechanism for the community.”
“Our top priority is to protect the community of Jasper from the remaining risk posed by the fire,” officials said. “This includes the construction of a fireguard between Pyramid Lake and Highway 16.
“Structural protection continues in at-risk areas around town and the park.”
Park officials noted that Monday saw cooler temperatures and some light rain in the area, which resulted in another day of “reduced fire activity.”
“As temperatures rise and relative humidity drops over the coming days, we do anticipate some growth and increased fire behaviour beginning later this week,” they said.
Officials added that in the Jasper townsite, crews continue to work to restore critical services and perimeter fencing is now being erected around structures damaged by the fire. A timeline for re-entry has yet to be determined for residents as officials say the risks posed by both area wildfires and the damage already done to the community are currently too high.
James Eastham, Parks Canada’s incident information officer for the Jasper Wildfire Complex, said crews are paying particular attention to the Pyramid Bench trail where the fire threat is “persistent.”
“The fire burned very intensely,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s burned fairly deeply into the ground and so that work is a bit slow, but we’ve got a lot of resources working on it.”
Eastham noted in some areas, particularly in remote parts of the park, the fire could continue to burn for months.
“Fire is beneficial to the ecosystem, and so where it is burning into the wilderness, we will likely let it burn,” he said, adding that fire crews’ priority is currently protecting the Jasper townsite and critical infrastructure.
Parks Canada released new photos on Monday of the Athabasca Falls area, one of the more popular spots for visiting tourists in the national park located in western Alberta.
“While some areas experienced more fire activity than others, the viewpoint and its infrastructure appear to have been relatively spared,” officials noted of the area.
Alberta wildfire situation
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The Alberta government provided an update on the overall wildfire situation in the province on Tuesday.
Officials warned the warm and dry weather is expected to return to much of Alberta later this week, so the expectation is for increased wildfire activity.
That said, it shouldn’t be as extreme as last week.
“We’re not expecting the hot, hot temperatures that we’ve seen and certainly, the wind was a major story on what happened last week, particularly in the Jasper area. We’re not anticipating winds like we’ve seen there,” Christie Tucker, an information unit manager with Alberta Wildfire, said on Tuesday.
“We are expecting things to return sort of seasonally.”
That said, Tucker said August brings with it a part of the wildfire season where the province experiences a mix of warmer temperatures combined with a drying out of vegetation, especially in southern Alberta.
“So just being aware of that cycle here in Alberta, and being as prepared as we can.”
There are 117 wildfires currently burning across Alberta’s forest protection areas (down from 123 on Monday) and 23 are deemed to be out of control — down by one over the past 24 hours.
Tucker said it’s been a remarkable decrease from a week ago, when there were 170 wildfires burning across Alberta.
“Firefighters have made good progress on current wildfires and have been steadily containing and extinguishing them,” she said.
More than half of the fires that have started this fire season were sparked by lightning, according to government officials, who noted that all other fires were caused by humans.
Eastham noted the fires that caused damage to Jasper National Park and which continue to threaten that area were caused by lightning.
“There was a dry lightning system that rolled through the area,” he said. “Dry lightning is lightning that comes without rain.”
It came as a heat wave enveloped much of Alberta.
“Because Jasper had experienced a period of very high temperatures without precipitation for a while, the forest was very receptive to burning.”
Nearly 1,900 Alberta firefighters and support staff are currently working in the province and personnel from other jurisdictions have been brought in to help as well.
Most recently, 200 firefighters from South Africa arrived in Alberta on Monday to offer their assistance. Another 100 came in from Mexico in recent days as well.
More firefighters are expected to arrive from New Zealand on Tuesday.
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.
For the latest on road closures in Alberta, you can visit the 511 Alberta website.
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Parks Canada defends Jasper wildfire preparations -
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After weekend reprieve, Parks Canada warms of incoming heat near Jasper -
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Jasper wildfire: Mayor commends emergency officials, rejects suggestions they failed to save town -
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Jasper wildfire: Guilbeault confirms plans for staged re-entry, gives no timeline -
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Emotions overflow as South African firefighters arrive in Alberta -
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Jasper wildfire: Toxic fumes, smoke making re-entry still unsafe for residents
–with files from Caley Gibson, Global News
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