More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Mayor Richard Ireland said Wednesday a “glitch” in Jasper’s alert system prevented some subscribers from receiving the message.
The service the town of about 4,100 uses sends alerts through its app or by email, text or phone message.
“That glitch I think has now been remedied,” Ireland said during a Wednesday media conference.
The municipality also used the Alberta Emergency Alert system, which Ireland said worked as expected, although there was some confusion when information sent via the provincial system Monday night said wildfire was expected to reach the townsite in five hours.
Another alert sent an hour later clarified that people were being asked to evacuate in five hours, not that the wildfire would arrive in that time.
“We don’t yet know how that error occurred,” Ireland said, but added officials plan to find out why it did.
“The whole system will be reviewed, and we will see if any corrections have to be made.”
Monday’s wildfire flare-up in the national park marked the first time Jasper used the emergency alert system.