A plan to return Jasper evacuees home has been released, however, there is no timeline yet on when this will happen.
According to an announcement by the Municipality of Jasper, Monday night the Jasper Emergency Advisory Committee met and agreed on the criteria guide to ensure the safe return of residents, with the priority being both evacuee’s mental and physical safety.
“This planning process is happening alongside our ongoing efforts to manage the active, out-of-control wildfire. We understand and appreciate your desire to come home,” the announcement reads. “The site is currently unsafe, and the wildfire status remains out of control. We know and hear that residents want to come home and we will make that happen when it is safe to do so.”
For residents to be able to return home criteria that needs to be met includes Parks Canada saying the wildfire is not an imminent threat to the townsite, hazards in the community being secured or mitigated and an approved re-entry plan in place. Emergency services and critical services will also need to be restored, including utilities such as electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater while grocery stores, and gas stations, banking and pharmacy locations need to be reopened.
Following the re-entry criteria announcement, Mayor Richard Ireland issued a statement saying the community has had some time “to begin to come to terms with the devastating news revealed in the damage assessment map released over the weekend.” Expressing that loss in the community is impacting them all with some having had their worst dreams made reality with the loss of their home or business.
“For those who have lost so much, whose homes are gone, whose memories have been turned to ash, whose future remains so uncertain, whose hearts are breaking, my heart breaks with you,” Ireland says.
The municipal leader says he understands how some evacuees need to see the wake of the fire for themselves, adding it breaks his heart that right now that cannot happen.
“I understand the overwhelming desire to return, to see for yourselves, to sift through the rubble, to perhaps find some small reminder, a treasured memory, of the life that was. I understand because I held tightly those very thoughts. One photograph, one item, one keepsake to help trigger and restore years of precious memories: one link to the life of the past.
In my case, it was not to be, yet I know many of you will continue to harbour that hope.”
Ireland is asking the community though at the moment to not look at what has been lost but rather what has been gained. During the evacuation and the wildfire fight, there were no fatalities, no personal injuries, and critical infrastructure was not destroyed.
“We have not lost our town or our community; we have, and we will suffer grievous pain, but we have not lost hope.”
According to Monday night’s update from Parks Canada, work is being done in the townsite to restore those critical services, while safety concerns are also being addressed. Crews are working to put up perimeter fencing around structures impacted by the wildfire and starting today work debris removal will begin at commercial locations in town.
On Monday, Jasper received light rain and cooler temperatures that helped reduce fire activity. According to the Parks Canada update, firefighters are continuing to put out hotspots and are anticipating some growth and an increase in wildfire behaviour as temperatures rise later in the week.
The update reads, “Our top priority is to protect the community of Jasper from the remaining risk posed by the fire.”
Included in this work is the fireguard between Pyramid Lake and Highway 16, along with the sprinkler system that has been set up along the community fireguard. Crews also are continuing structural protection in those areas considered at-risk in the town and park.
