Nearly seven weeks since a wildfire forced the evacuation of Jasper National Park and burned nearly a third of the townsite’s structures, Parks Canada says the blaze is now officially under control.
Landon Shepherd, incident commander with the parks agency, told an online media briefing Saturday the change in status means the fire has been sufficiently suppressed to ensure it won’t spread outside of its defined perimeter.
Shepherd says that perimeter is 278 km long.
The fire’s status was last changed on Aug. 17 when it moved from being out-of-control to “being held,” which meant it wasn’t expected to spread into any priority areas.
That happened one day after residents of the Jasper townsite were allowed to return home on Aug. 16.
Shepherd notes there is still a good chance that smoke, as well as flames, will be visible inside the fire area right into early winter.
“While we have much to celebrate today, there’s certainly a lot more to be done, and our collaborative efforts aren’t going to end with just putting this ‘under control’ stamp on a very large and complex wildfire, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Municipality of Jasper on the road to rebuilding and recovery,” Shepherd said.
The town’s 5,000 residents and 20,000 visitors to Jasper National Park were ordered out in late July due to the wildfire.
Shepherd said the change in the fire’s status won’t affect what’s open in the park. Campgrounds and many trails remain closed, according to the park’s website, and Shepherd said that reopening them requires crews being able to ensure areas are safe from fire-weakened trees.
The website says Roads are also closed other than Highway 16, Highway 93N, the Columbia Icefield area, Miette Road and Miette Hot Springs area, the Jasper town site, and the Pyramid Lake area west of the Pyramid Lake parking lot.