People who were forced to flee Jasper National Park three weeks ago due to wildfires will be allowed to return home this Friday.
In an update Monday morning, officials with Jasper National Park and the Municipality of Jasper said all residents and business owners will be allowed back at the same time.
“It is a blanket re-entry, so for the entire townsite,” said Christine Nadon, incident commander with the Municipality of Jasper.
“Currently, the highway is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., so those will be the times that people will be able to travel and get to Jasper. It is for all residents and business owners to return at once in the entire town of Jasper.”
Officials said while the criteria for re-entry were met at an “unprecedented rate,” they stressed that services such as gas and water will not be up and running at 100 per cent in all areas. Wildfire destroyed about a third of the town’s buildings.
An update on the Municipality of Jasper’s Facebook page Sunday afternoon said work to restore residential gas, water and electricity services could take up to three weeks or more. Residents should be prepared to be as self-sufficient as possible, the update stated.
Nadon said electricity to critical infrastructure within the townsite has been restored to 95 per cent, natural gas has been restored to 85 per cent, telecommunications have been restored to 95 per cent, water and wastewater have been restored to 30 per cent and health care has been restored to 10 per cent.
Nadon said most utilities have been restored on the north end of town, which was less affected by fire than other areas. However, some areas of the townsite may not have water and gas restored for a few more weeks.
Nadon stressed that people should be prepared to come and assess their property, but not everyone should expect to be able to stay overnight.
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“It is not a public safety risk to have people stay in their houses, but if you don’t have water and you don’t have gas for three or more weeks, you may make your own decision about whether you want to go live there or not for the time being,” Nadon said.
“It’s a voluntary re-entry, is what we’re calling it, and it is for the entire town. Some people may be able to stay, some people may not, and everyone should be making their own decisions about that.”
Nadon also noted that it is highly unlikely that any accommodations will be up and running by Friday.
Trails, campgrounds and day use areas are not currently included in this phase of re-entry, as many areas of the park still need to be assessed for safety.
“It’ll take some time for these areas to reopen,” said Jonathan Large, incident commander with Parks Canada.
“Re-entry into the municipality will pose challenges to those who have lost their homes, businesses and treasured places. We hope that this first step brings some hope to the community.”
Nadon said the state of local emergency will remain in place for some time, and the evacuation order — which was issued on June 22 — will be downgraded to an evacuation alert on Friday.
“There is still a wildfire active on the landscape right around the town. Parks Canada has been doing some great work and putting lots of effort into containing and going towards controlling the fire in that area, so we have confidence that it is safe for the public to go back. There’s a high likelihood that the town will remain on evacuation alert for some time, which means residents who do go back … need to be ready to evacuate again if the conditions change.”
What does the re-entry plan mean for visitors?
While Nadon said they are not giving visitors strict rules to stay away at this time, she suggested tourists wait a bit before coming back to visit the mountain town.
“We are not providing any directive for visitors at this time. However, it is important to understand that there is very limited services available in Jasper right now. So we are gearing our message towards residents and business owners. That is not to say that visitors can’t come – there’s no hard restriction there – but we do ask for the public to give our residents and business owners a chance to go see for themselves what their property looks like,” she said.
“The bottom line is, there’s really no amenities available for visitors right now. But having that said, we’re a visitor-based economy and we do need visitors to come back. Friday may not be that day, but certainly as businesses are re-established, accommodation providers are re-established and the services are a bit more steady, we will need visitors to come back to Jasper and support our local economy.”
Officials said Sunday that the northwest perimeter of the wildfire is now 89 per cent contained. Fire crews continue to focus on this area to gain control and secure the perimeter to fully eliminate the wildfire threat to the townsite.
The wildfire remains out of control at about 33,000 hectares in size.
Bus tours of the Jasper townsite for residents, which began last week, continue this week.
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.