Parks Canada staff say aggressive fire behaviour prompted the decision to have thousands of people flee the Jasper area late Monday night.
Parks Canada said at a media briefing Tuesday evening that the evacuation of the remaining hikers in the backcountry is still ongoing, but thousands of people have safely evacuated the park and the town.
Up to 25,000 residents and visitors were evacuated since the order was made Monday night, as two fires raged south and north of Jasper, reaching within 12 kilometres of the townsite.
By Tuesday afternoon, the wildfire south of the town had burned a minimum of 6,750 hectares, Parks Canada said, and the north wildfire, located between the Jasper Transfer Station and the Jasper Air Strip on both sides of Highway 16, had burned at least 270 hectares.
When asked how the fire was able to come so close to the townsite before the alert was sent, incident commander Katie Ellsworth recounted a rapidly evolving situation leading up to the evacuation order.
“The situation unfolded very, very quickly,” Ellsworth said, noting it was only a two-hour time frame from the start of the fires to when they were estimated to be of significant size.
“These fires, were exhibiting aggressive, aggressive fire behaviour.”
Ellsworth and her assistant fire management officer received the first report of the north wildfire at about 7 p.m. Monday, she said.
About 30 minutes after going out to suppress that fire, they received another report of a wildfire south of the townsite near Kerkeslin campground, Ellsworth said.
Within 10 minutes, there was another report of a fire from the Leach Lake area, which is about 30 kilometres southwest of the townsite.
“Within another 10 minutes, there was another report of a smoke,” Ellsworth said. “The winds were gusting upwards of 20 to 30 kilometres per hour in Jasper and it was hot: 30-plus degrees Celsius with 20 per cent humidity, maximum.”
By 8 p.m., Ellsworth said, it was clear that it was time to call an evacuation alert.
And there was no time to prepare the community before calling the evacuation order at 10 p.m., Ellsworth said.
“Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions at the time and the gusting strong winds, it was really quickly very apparent that life safety needed to come first and we needed to begin evacuation immediately,” Ellsworth said.
With little notice, people were forced to flee west over mountain roads into British Columbia, through darkness, soot and ash.
Two wildfires are burning out of control in Jasper. RCMP say it’s a volatile and evolving situation. Travis McEwan has been covering the fires from as close as he can get, which was supposed to include a tour from the RCMP late this afternoon. But wildfires don’t always co-operate.
“Lots of ash in the air,” said Marc LeBlanc, a small business owner who managed to get out of Jasper with his family Monday night, making it to refuge in Valemount, B.C. in the early hours of Tuesday.
“Tons of smoke. Really thick smoke, hard to breathe, uncomfortable hot, lots of uncertainty,” LeBlanc said of the escape. “And then big plumes of smoke. You could even see it with the dark because I think the fire that was burning east of town was going so hot and so close to us that it was just sending considerable smoke into the atmosphere.”
The fires are believed to have been caused by lightning, Ellsworth said.
By Tuesday evening, the evacuation of the town was complete, save for about 40 people who were not willing to leave, Ellsworth said.
The RCMP will continue doing sweeps of the townsite, encouraging those who remained, to evacuate, Ellsworth said.
Backcountry evacuation ongoing
The evacuation of hikers in Jasper’s backcountry is ongoing, Ellsworth said, with helicopters picking up hikers and campers in safe landing zones. The number of campers evacuated by helicopter was not available Tuesday, but there were no reports of injuries or serious situations, Ellsworth said.
As of Tuesday evening, about 240 personnel were assigned to the Jasper wildfires, including seven aircraft and helicopters, and seven structural protection crews.
Parks Canada reported no critical structure was damaged within Jasper National Park or the community of Jasper as of Tuesday evening.
Parks Canada is expected to provide an update Wednesday morning.
Joe Urie had to switch from driving tourists around Jasper to helping people leave and find shelter because of the wildfire. He says he tried using a bucket of water to stop a wildfire near a telephone pole, but it quickly spread beyond his control.