Thursday, July 25, 2024

Today's News: Terrible news that Jasper is on fire


Terrible news tonight from Jasper National Park - multiple buildings in the town of Jasper are burning.. 
We always loved visiting Jasper -- it was almost as scenic as Banff, but without the crowding and the touristy kitsch (or at least, not as much). 
It was a easier drive too, from Saskatoon, especially after most of it was twinned. 
Whenever we drove to Vancouver, we usually took the easier Edmonton route, with its long and lazy valleys instead of twisting through the Calgary to Kamloops route. 
I cannot imagine how frightening and terrible it would be to get told to evacuate at 10 pm, then drive all night to get to safety. 
Such outstanding courage those people are showing us all.
...Parks Canada says firefighters continue to battle to save as many structures as possible in the Jasper townsite.
“Today has been an exceptionally difficult day for Jasperites, incident personnel and everyone who loves Jasper,” said the agency.
Crews working to save homes, businesses and critical infrastructure will be supported by “many more” structural firefighters en route to the community.
...Jasper is under attack by fires from the north and south, and the town’s 5,000 residents -- along with 20,000 park visitors -- have already left.
The northern fire was spotted five kilometres from Jasper earlier Wednesday.
The southern fire had been reported eight kilometres distant from the town, but Katie Ellsworth, with Parks Canada, said strong wind gusts swooping in behind it sent it racing.
Everything that could go wrong earlier Wednesday did go wrong.
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 “unfavourable conditions.”
The hope was that up to 20 mm of rain, forecast to begin falling in the area later Wednesday night, would bring some relief.
Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen has asked the Canadian Armed Forces for help.
"We are requesting firefighting resources, aerial support to move wildfire crews and equipment and more," Loewen wrote on the social media platform X.



  Stories of the evacuation:
When Eleonor Dumlao and her family first received the evacuation order, she said they were filled with panic. Her two daughters and husband moved to Jasper from the Philippines in 2018. This was the first time they experienced an evacuation.
Geah Dumloa, Eleonor’s 10-year-old daughter, said they drove for what felt like 24 hours. They left Jasper at 11 p.m. on Monday before arriving in B.C. at 2 a.m., where they slept briefly before continuing their drive to Edmonton, arriving in the city late Tuesday evening.
“It was so very terrible experience for us, and I was so panicking that time. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to get first. The first thing (that) came in my mind is to make sure that we are all safe since we haven’t experienced that before,” Eleonor Dumloa said.
When they arrived at Edmonton’s evacuation centre on Wednesday, Dumlao said she cried to one of the workers for being so accommodating and was impressed with how prepared they were.
Dumlao and her family are now staying at a hotel the Canadian Red Cross set up and have accommodations until Aug. 30.
...At the Grande Prairie evacuation centre, Addison McNeill recalled literally just arriving in Jasper when she was told to get out. McNeill said she had just put her bags down after moving from Edmonton for her new job as a line cook when she got an alert on her phone that she needed to leave immediately.
“I moved there two hours before the evacuation notice,” said the 24-year-old in an interview.
McNeill said went to a nearby hotel, one of two meet-up points for those without transportation. She hopped in a recreational vehicle with others and headed out — at a snail’s pace.
“Every single person in town was beelining to one exit from about six different routes and so you get bottleneck, backups and congestion,” she said.
McNeill said as she sat inside the vehicle, she felt so close to the wildfires that the windows seemed like they were going to shatter from the pressure of the red, hot, smoky air.
She saw acts of kindness amid the swirling ash: neighbours loaning their cars to those without; people knocking on doors to see if everyone inside was OK.
“It was far from a panic,” she said.
Some rain tonight, maybe it will help:
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