GRAND PRAIRIE, Alberta (news agencies) — One of two wildfires bearing down on the town of Jaspar in the Canadian Rockies’ largest national park reached the community on Wednesday as a last-ditch attempt to reroute it failed.
Around the same time, many first responders were ordered out of Jasper National Park for their safety. But firefighters stayed.
“Firefighters remain in town combating multiple structural fires and are working to protect critical infrastructure,” Parks Canada said in a post on X.
Two fires whipped by strong winds are bearing down on the town of Jasper, from the north and the south.
The northern fire was spotted 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) from Jasper earlier in the day.
The southern fire had been reported 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) away from the town, but Katie Ellsworth of Parks Canada said strong wind gusts swooping in behind it sent it racing.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong as 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 “unfavorable conditions.”
The hope was that some rain, forecast to begin falling in the area later Wednesday night, would bring some relief.
Ellsworth said the decision to relocate all first responders to the town of Hinton, Alberta just outside the eastern edge of the park, “has not been made lightly.”
She said, “Given the intensity of fire behavior being observed the decision has been made to limit the number of responders exposed to this risk.”
Jasper National Park is considered a national 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.
In 1953, Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe visited to make the movie “River of No Return.” More recently, the TV show “The Bachelorette” was filmed there.
About 5,000 people live in Jasper, and they, along with about 20,000 visitors, had to flee at a moment’s notice Monday night when the fires flared up.
Park rangers in helicopters scoured the park earlier Wednesday, looking for stragglers still there despite a mass evacuation aimed at moving visitors and residents away.
Searchers looking through the backcountry trails of Jasper National Park already had picked up 245 people, and they continued the search Wednesday in two helicopters, Ellsworth said.
Residents and visitors streamed out by the thousands late Monday and Tuesday, and officials said Wednesday the evacuation of the town of Jasper was complete.
Ellsworth said park officials expected the evacuation of the park’s backcountry areas to be completed later Wednesday. Reservations are required for the park, so authorities have an idea of where people are, though Ellsworth said she wasn’t immediately sure how many people were left.
Alberta has been baking under scorching temperatures that have already forced another 7,500 people out of remote communities. About 177 wildfires were burning across the province.
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