Firefighters in Jasper National Park preparing for hot, gusty weekend

Chetamon Fire burning near Jasper. Alta. (Alex Antoneshyn/CTV News Edmonton)

Firefighters in Jasper National Park are feeling as confident as they can heading into the weekend, despite a forecast of warm temperatures and high winds.

During the earlier, cooler part of the week, crews reinforced fire breaks, dropped retardant, and tested protective equipment like massive sprinklers near the townsite of Jasper, about 15 kilometres from the southern edge of the blaze on Chetamon Mountain, last estimated to be 5,600 hectares.

The sprinklers near Jasper can produce up to 30 millimetres of moisture per hour, but are still a precautionary message, authorities said Friday. No communities were at risk from the fire.

But in an update on Friday, Anne-Claude Pépin, a plans section chief on the fire, said a ridge was building over Jasper which would likely induce a surge in fire activity.

"Because it is a huge fire, and we can only contain certain areas – the ones that pose the most threat to infrastructure or communities. So that's where we're putting all our energy," Pépin told media.

She said crews were "feeling pretty good" about the south side, which they have been able to access more easily since flames broke out Sept. 1. She said firefighters would be starting a direct attack line on the north side of the edge, which is located in more remote, rugged terrain.

Twenty-five more firefighters have joined the effort, as well.

"We are expecting increased fire behaviour through the weekend with high winds on Saturday and Sunday. We're all gearing up and prepping for that."

100 HOURS OF INTERMITTENT POWER

On Friday, the Jasper townsite marked 100 hours of intermittent power since Chetamon Wildfire burned down more than a dozen power poles that service the community.

As ATCO has worked to bring the entire community of about 5,000 people onto generators, it has repeatedly run into technical issues resulting in outages.

Mayor Richard Ireland and Parks Canada again on Friday asked visitors to reconsider visiting Jasper while the town was struggling to maintain stable power to critical services.

"We're really happy to say that overall, the tourism stakeholders seem to be sharing the message and as these intermittent blackouts continue, I think the message will become stronger and stronger," he speculated.

"Yes, there are people here," he said in response to a question about tourists milling around the park.

"Occasionally they are people who perhaps got on the train in Toronto a few days ago without any knowledge there was an issue in Jasper. They got off the train yesterday with hotel reservations and it would be unfair and unkind of us to force them out of the community. We have to accommodate them, at least on a temporary basis, but we are doing all we can to get the message out."