Firestorm caused winds up to 180 km/h at Wabasso Campground, leaving trail of destruction

At the Wabasso Campground in Jasper National Park, life is returning to the charred landscape and officials are getting a better picture of the damage left behind by an unusually intense firestorm that ripped through the popular destination last month.

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On Wednesday, CTV News Edmonton toured the campground alongside Parks Canada officials.

Hundreds of trees on the north side of the campground could be seen plastered to the ground, downed not by fire, but by hurricane-force winds that tore up asphalt and left tangled metal wrapped around the trees left standing.

"You can see that by all the alignment of the trees, where the trees have been knocked over by the force of that convective suction in the fire column," said Landon Shepherd, a deputy incident commander with Parks Canada.

Trees can be seen burnt and blown over by intense wind during a firestorm at the Wabasso Campground in July. CTV News Edmonton and Parks Canada toured the site on Aug. 28, 2024. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)A fire column is an updraft created during a firestorm, when the rising heat from a wildfire creates its own wind system.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the rapidly rising heat pulls air from outside of the fire to fill the vacuum left behind. 

That creates a powerful updraft, and in the case of very large fires, the rising smoke can condense into a firestorm cloud – or pyrocumulonimbus – which can produce lightning and rain.

Metal sheeting can be seen wrapped around a tree trunk at the Wabasso Campground, after a firestorm in July. CTV News Edmonton and Parks Canada toured the site on Aug. 28, 2024. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton) Shepherd said on July 24, conditions were just right for things to go wrong.

"There was a very receptive layer of air just above our taller mountain tops that was able to pull that smoke and all of the ash in the upper atmosphere out of the area, and it just kept drawing more and more fire, almost like a furnace," Shepherd said.

In Wabasso, the winds created by the firestorm were calculated to have reached between 150 and 180 km/h – strong enough to lift a 6,700-pound shipping container and toss it 100 metres into the Athabasca River.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 180 km/h wind speeds are equivalent to an F1 tornado or a Category 3 hurricane. 

Parks Canada staff prepare a shipping container for removal from the Athabasca River. According to Parks Canada, the 6,700-pound container was tossed from the Wabasso Campground 100 metres away during a firestorm in July. (Parks Canada)During the tour, several metal fire pit rings could be seen ripped up and strewn across the campground and the riverbank. Shepherd said each one weighs around 75 pounds and is far from aero-dynamic.

"There's nothing for the wind to grab onto, it's anchored to the ground," he said. "That got lifted up and lobbed across the Athabasca River."

On the other side of the riverbank, Shepherd pointed out a fire pit ring that had been flattened into an oval, suggesting it was dropped from significant height.

"The forces on this side were unbelievable," he added.

A Parks Canada officials points out a metal fire pit ring that was ripped out the ground during a firestorm at the Wabasso Campground in July. CTV News Edmonton and Parks Canada toured the site on Aug. 28, 2024. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)

'Severe and intense'

In addition to tearing trees out by the root, the wind wrapped metal roofing around trunks, tore copper pipes out of washrooms and shot a log through a metal grizzly-bear-proof dumpster.

"Even whole trees with 1,000-pound root balls were being carried about by the convective force of this fire," Shepherd said.

A tree can be seen pulled out by the roots after a firestorm at the Wabasso Campground in July. CTV News Edmonton and Parks Canada toured the site on Aug. 28, 2024. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)During a wildfire, it's normal to see pine needles and other small debris carried up and away by rising hot air, however that debris is often extinguished by the time it reaches the ground.

Shepherd said the fire in Wabasso was intense enough to carry large embers that could be seen starting fires hundreds of metres from the perimeter.

"The bigger the item that convection column can lift, the more likely it is to stay ignited," he said. "Certainly, there were some large objects that dropped towards the community."

According to Shepherd, the amount of available fuel in the area is not to blame for the intensity of the fire.

Parks Canada said the south side of the Wabasso Campground saw milder, more moderate fire damage, despite having similar landscape and fuel sources. CTV News Edmonton and Parks Canada toured the site on Aug. 28, 2024. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)He said the campground had been cleared of trees damaged by mountain pine beetles, and there were fire breaks in the area.

"We were using all the tools and tactics that you can use, starting over 20 years ago, to try and interrupt a fire like this," Shepherd said. "This is a little more severe and intense than most people have ever experienced, even in my business of fire management."

Once the fire was going, he said there was also little that could be done to stop it, given the sheer intensity.

"Even if you could divert the Athabasca River on the head of this fire, it would have evaporated before it could get down and cool that flame front," he said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg