Multiple structures ablaze as wildfire roars into Jasper townsite

GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. -

One of two raging, wind-whipped fires menacing Jasper, Alta., roared into town Wednesday night and began burning buildings.

Parks officials say the fire entered the southern edge of the community about 6:40 p.m.

Pictures on social media depicted lodges and other buildings wrapped in fiery sheets of orange flame.

• In Pictures: Wildfire destruction in Jasper
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Some fire crews were ordered out as the battle switched from the forest to the streets.

“(The) air quality had deteriorated to the point that wildland firefighters and others without self-contained breathing apparatuses needed to evacuate to Hinton,” Parks Canada said in a statement.

“Structural firefighters remain in town and are working to save as many structures as possible and to protect critical infrastructure, including the wastewater treatment plant, communications facilities, the Trans Mountain Pipeline and others.”

A few hours earlier, all first responders were ordered out of Jasper National Park for their safety and to give fire crews more room to operate.

That launched a line of cars and trucks snaking east to the town of Hinton, outside the park gates.

Jasper was under attack by fires from the north and south, and the town’s 5,000 residents -- along with 20,000 park visitors -- have already left.

The northern fire was spotted five kilometres from Jasper earlier Wednesday.

The southern fire had been reported eight kilometres distant from the town, but Katie Ellsworth, with Parks Canada, said strong wind gusts swooping in behind it sent it racing.

Everything that could go wrong earlier Wednesday did go wrong.

Fire perimeters changed minute by minute.

Ellsworth said bucketing efforts by helicopter failed.

Crews using heavy equipment to build fireguards couldn’t complete the work before having to pull back for safety.

Water bombers couldn’t help due to dangerous flying conditions.

A last-ditch effort to use controlled burns to reroute the fire to natural barriers like Highway 16 and the Athabasca River failed due to “unfavourable conditions.”

The hope was that up to 20 mm of rain, forecast to begin falling in the area later Wednesday night, would bring some relief.

Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen has asked the Canadian Armed Forces for help.

"We are requesting firefighting resources, aerial support to move wildfire crews and equipment and more," Loewen wrote on the social media platform X.

The 25,000 fled at a moment’s notice two nights earlier.

The order to go went out around 10 p.m. Monday as fires cut off road access to the Jasper townsite from the east and the south, forcing evacuees to drive west into British Columbia in a long, slow midnight cavalcade through swirling smoke, soot and ash.

The following day, evacuees in B.C. who didn’t have a place to stay were directed to make a long, looping U-turn around the fires back to Alberta to evacuation centres in Grande Prairie and Calgary.

B.C., dealing with its own multiple wildfires and evacuees, did not have the capacity to help Alberta, officials said.

At the Grande Prairie evacuation centre, Addison McNeill recalled literally just arriving in Jasper when she was told to get out.

McNeill said she had just put her bags down after moving from Edmonton for her new job as a line cook when she got an alert on her phone that she needed to leave immediately.

"I moved there two hours before the evacuation notice," said the 24-year-old in an interview.

McNeill said went to a nearby hotel, one of two meet-up points for those without transportation. She hopped in a recreational vehicle with others and headed out -- at a snail's pace.

"Every single person in town was beelining to one exit from about six different routes and so you get bottleneck, backups and congestion,” she said.

McNeill said as she sat inside the vehicle, she felt so close to the wildfires that the windows seemed like they were going to shatter from the pressure of the red, hot, smoky air.

She saw acts of kindness amid the swirling ash: neighbours loaning their cars to those without; people knocking on doors to see if everyone inside was OK.

"It was far from a panic," she said.

Jasper National Park, the largest in the Canadian Rockies, is considered a national and international treasure.

The United Nations designated the parks that make up the Canadian Rockies, including Jasper, a World Heritage Site in 1984 for its striking mountain landscape.

It has hosted glitz and glitter. In 1953, Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe visited to make the movie "River of No Return." More recently, the TV show "The Bachelor" was filmed there.

Jasper is famous for hiking, skiing, kayaking and biking.

It is also home to dozens of species such as elk, mountain goats, cougars, lynx, black bears and grizzly bears.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2024.

-- with files from Fakiha Baig in Grande Prairie