Several government and emergency officials huddled together in Jasper, Alta., Friday afternoon, staring at what was once a basement. Charred concrete walls cradled scorched metal and ash-covered debris — the remnants of a destroyed home.
Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland’s voice broke while describing his 67-year connection to the home on Turret Street. Somewhere in the wreckage, he said, was a photo of Ireland, sitting on moving boxes, with a birthday cake. His family had moved in just before his second birthday.
“Now it’s memories of family and fire,” Ireland said.
“So many others are going to go through this same thing.”
Ireland shared that story with Alberta’s premier, the federal emergency preparedness minister and a few members of the media during a tour of the town. It’s among the first glimpses of the damage wrought by a massive wildfire that ripped through the historic townsite Wednesday night.
Of the 1,113 total structures within the town, 358 were destroyed, Jasper National Park said on social media Friday.
Elsewhere in Jasper, Whistlers mountain towered beyond a stretch of torched land. The skeletons of a trailer and a four-door car are parked beside a sidewalk. A silver puddle, bubbly like a half-cooked pancake, trails from a melted car tire.
Nearby, blackened tree trunks stand like used matches.
In a parking lot, a fire truck sprays a burning pile of rubble. Steam rises, fogging the window of a tractor combing through the debris. A sign standing on the green grass in front of the lot suggests the Maligne Lodge once stood there.
Next door, the Mount Robson Inn once stood.
Mayor Richard Ireland told reporters that it will be “extremely painful” when he tours the devastation in Jasper, Alta., following wildfires. Ireland says the fire did the most damage where his own home is located.
Wrecked buildings that once contained other businesses line some of the streets. The bulbs of street lamps have melted like cheese.
Afterward, back in Hinton, Alta., where the community command centre relocated late Wednesday, Ireland told reporters that the tour was helpful.
“It was every bit as difficult as I anticipated and, as it turned out, probably more useful than I had expected,” he said. “I learned a lot.”
Two wildfires — one north, the other south — had threatened Jasper for days, forcing thousands to evacuate as they encroached on two highways. The south fire, described as a monster with flames reaching 100 metres high, hit Jasper late Wednesday, scorching portions of the town about 365 kilometres west of Edmonton.
Park officials confirmed Thursday night that the north and south fires had merged. The Jasper Wildfire Complex includes those fires and the Utopia wildfire, near Miette Hot Springs, that started July 19.
In all, the flames have burned an estimated 36,000 hectares, although strong winds, extreme fire behaviour and heavy clouds and smoke have posed challenges to accurately mapping the perimeter.
The Jasper area is still active, said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith after Friday’s tour. She noted that crews are digging through rubble and dousing flames, and described the air as toxic.
“You can actually feel it in your lungs,” Smith said. “There’s a chemical taste in the air.
“There’s going to be some time, I think, for that to clear and for it to feel safe to return home.”
Earlier Friday, Smith announced the provincial government is expediting its evacuation payment program for those displaced from Jasper and the national park, as they could be away from home for several weeks, at least.
Certain conditions must be met before residents can return, such as cleanup and re-establishing emergency services, Stephen Lacroix, head of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, told reporters in a virtual news conference Friday afternoon.
Smith said power and gas are still shut off but Atco will spend the coming days going from building to building, trying to reactivate utilities.
Evacuation payments are usually eligible for people who have been displaced by disaster for a week. Evacuees will receive $1,250 for each adult and $500 per child.
Smith and two provincial cabinet ministers said Thursday that preliminary estimates suggested 30 to 50 per cent of the town’s structures may have burned. Officials from Parks Canada, the lead agency on the fire, confirmed there was significant loss throughout the community, but did not offer an estimate until Friday.
A video posted on social media walking the path north past the playground between Cabin Creek Drive and Patricia Street in Jasper, Alta. Credit: Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye / X
The figures from Jasper National Park on Friday show that 32 per cent of all structures in the townsite were destroyed.
The west side of Jasper and southeast of Miette Avenue were hardest hit, officials said Friday, echoing previous assessments.
Friday evening, Smith described the randomness of the fire’s destruction. She noted that Ireland’s home was the only one damaged on the block, whereas another section of town probably lost more than 100 houses.
“That was a strange thing to see,” she said.
Assessment of infrastructure damage is ongoing but all critical infrastructure — including the hospital, schools, activity centre and wastewater treatment plant — was saved, the national park’s statement said.
The tour passed by some of the critical infrastructure, such as the schools and hospital, which appeared to be in good condition, Smith said. But some gas stations burned, including a Petro-Canada.
“I’m hoping people can be patient, because having seen what we have seen, that’s an awful lot of work that they have to do to be able to secure different zones, make them safe so that people can return home,” Smith said.
Government officials also toured the command centre in Hinton, Alta., that is orchestrating firefighting in Jasper and the national park. Hinton became the hive of operations when many first responders evacuated Jasper, in part due to dangerously poor air quality on the front line.
“It is incredible to see the work that everyone is doing to fight this fire,” Smith said.
As the tour of Jasper proceeded on the ground Friday afternoon, helicopters carrying water whirred overhead toward the forests, working to douse the flames from above.
Firefighters are focusing on extinguishing hot spots on the town’s outskirts and trees surrounding the community, as well as structures, Jasper National Park said Friday.
Rain and cooler temperatures have reduced fire activity in the area, but the flames are still out of control. Emergency officials are promising to take advantage of a reprieve from the volatile weather that fuelled the wildfires, before forecasted warm weather arrives.
Fire crews, however, are bracing for a long battle. Officials expect it could take weeks, if not longer, to gain the upper hand.
Government officials, including federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan, praised the efforts of first responders Friday.
“What you had to go through was absolutely horrendous and your courage saved so many lives,” Sajjan said.
Officials say up to 50 per cent of the structures in Jasper, Alta., have been destroyed as crews try to push back a wildfire that’s still threatening the community.
Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Thursday about the wildfire situation in Jasper.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said they discussed the resources and support being made available to the fire-ravaged town as well as other communities in Alberta being threatened by wildfires.
Trudeau and Smith have agreed to stay in regular contact as the situation unfolds.