Rain overnight Wednesday helped, but not nearly enough. This is from Parks Canada officials as they continue battling an out-of-control wildfire that ripped through the Jasper townsite.
Parks officials say while they know the public is desperate for updates, they can’t give specifics about the extent of the damage before having time to properly access, and assess all areas of the town.
The Parks Canada update reads “As you can understand, the accuracy of this information is critical because it has a direct impact on members of the community. We will share more information as soon as we are able to ensure its accuracy.”
During Thursday morning’s wildfire update, Premier Danielle Smith says photos being shown on social media show is just snapshots those on the ground have been able to take. Smith says at the moment without having had eyes on the town potentially 30 to 50 per cent of the community has been damaged by fire.
“We have a long-term recovery that we will have to work with our federal counterparts on,” Smith says. ” We don’t know which structures have been damaged and which ones have been destroyed, but that is going to be a significant rebuild and a significant displacement for a long period of time.”
Wednesday night wildfire teams and anyone without a breathing apparatus where relocated to Hinton. Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis explains the firefighters relocated at this time were wildland firefighters as those who stayed behind focused on the structural fires in the town.
“Have been able to bring in structural firefighters from 32 municipalities all throughout Alberta,” Ellis says. “When you are dealing with structural firefighters there is a lot of unknown risks, sometimes gas leaks, sometimes toxic fumes, so this is very different.”
According to Parks Canada, the wildfire situation evolved at a significant pace, with the fire reaching the town within 48 hours of the first fire northeast of the town of Jasper being reported just after 7 p.m. on Monday.
An estimated 25,000 people were evacuated from the town of Jasper and Jasper National Park.
Alberta Wildfire Information Unit Manager Christie Tucker says in the past week the impact that strong winds can have on the intensity and spread of a wildfire, with the Jasper fire estimated to have travelled 5 kilometres in half an hour Wednesday.
“We are grateful to the nearly 1900 firefighters, contractors and support staff who have been working hard in the heat and difficult conditions this wildfire season.”
Over the weekend Tucker says 100 firefighters from Australia arrived in the province and roughly four hundred more are expected to arrive from Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the coming days. Tucker says these crews will be sent out to fires across the province where they will be most useful. Wednesday night Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that the the federal government will be deploying Canadian Armed Forces resources in response to Alberta’s request for federal assistance.
In Alberta, 176 wildfires are burning, with 54 classified as out of control, 50 are being held, and 60 are under control.
