JASPER – Officials presented on the 2024 wildfire and how residents can prepare for wildfire season during an information session at the Activity Centre on Wednesday (April 23).
Landon Shepherd, a fire and vegetation specialist with Parks Canada, began the presentation by reiterating that it was too simple to blame the wildfire on the mountain pine beetle infestation, which only played a minor role.
“What happened in July of 2024 was different,” Shepherd said. “We had record-dry conditions, and it made all of the fuel available, so not just the 40 per cent of the lower valley bottom forest that was affected pine, but all of the forest was available.”
According to Shepherd, Jasper National Park had not seen such dry conditions since the weather station currently near the Sixth Bridge was set up in 1962, except for one year in 2014.
“That was what resulted in the extreme fire behaviour that we saw in those 48 hours before we finally got some rain relief,” Shepherd said.
He reviewed the timeline of the fire, noting that crews first responded to a fire near the Jasper Transfer Station on July 22 before a fire broke out south of the townsite. The south fire was caused by lightning, but the cause of the north fire remains unknown.
Shepherd showed photos that illustrated how quickly the south fire grew in only six minutes, and even if helicopters had been ready to fly out, the blaze would have been beyond their ability to control by the time they arrived.
Parks Canada called for airtankers right away, but some were already fighting fires threatening other communities in Alberta, others were grounded by smoke and the only available B.C. tanker group couldn’t come directly to the park because of the weather.
“This is why, if anyone has wondered what if you could put tankers on it that evening, we had the same thought, and unfortunately, they weren’t available,” Shepherd said.
Following the evacuation that evening, crews worked to set up sprinklers to protect infrastructure before the fire arrived on July 24. Shepherd admitted that he didn’t think Jasper would survive the fire.
“This was unlike other fires I’ve been on in my 33 years, and I’ve been on some big ones, and I didn’t think we would have anything left standing,” he said.
Crews focused on protecting critical infrastructure, particularly the wastewater treatment plant, because it would be far more difficult to allow residents to re-enter town or accommodate construction crews for the rebuild without having a facility to deal with sewage and gray water.
Shepherd considered it “miraculous” that all critical infrastructure was saved and 70 per cent of Jasper’s buildings are still standing. He also acknowledged the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade, all the wildland firefighters and Morgan Kitchen, who gave his life fighting the blaze.
Christine Nadon, director of legislative and protective services for the Municipality of Jasper, provided her own presentation of the wildfire from the municipality’s perspective. She used the opportunity to address the mental health challenges that local firefighters were facing post-wildfire.
“There is no way you can prepare for this, and the impact that it still has on them today is hard to describe,” Nadon said. “A lot of the work that we’ve been doing at the station since the incident is to try to look after those guys, and it’s hard to talk about, and it’s even harder to get the right resources [and] convince people to get the help.”
Nadon reported that the Jasper Fire Department now has its own registered psychologist, and a vast majority of members are actively getting counselling and therapy with the psychologist.
Christine Brown and Kris Johnson with Parks Canada then presented on wildfire risk reduction and operational readiness, respectively.
Jasper Fire Chief Mathew Conte concluded the presentations by highlighting the additional staff being hired with assistance from the Disaster Recovery Program, including a new captain of fire prevention and eight term firefighters.
Conte noted that several members had been off duty for some time, and eight members had lost their homes in the fire.
“In the industry, we call it burnout when they put in too much time and effort, and we’re trying to avoid that so we don’t lose any firefighters,” he said. “What we found from previous studies is that in Slave Lake, Fort McMurray, High Level, within two years of their fires, they lost 50 per cent of their department, so we are working very hard with our mental health program right now to prevent that from happening in our service.”
The term firefighters recently had their agreement extended, so they will be available through the hazard season until the end of September.
Among other projects, the fire department is developing a residential sprinkler program to help residents protect their properties from falling embers in the event of a wildfire.
“What that program is going to do is allow us to buy residential home sprinkler kits at a reduced rate and offer them to our community with some caveats that residents will be required to do a home assessment to receive a sprinkler kit at a reduced rate,” Conte said.
Each house would have two to three sprinklers on average, and only first responders would be able to turn them on or off. More information on this new program is expected to be released within the next month or two.
The Municipality of Jasper will be hosting an open house for Emergency Preparedness Week at the Emergency Services Building on Wednesday (May 7) from 3 to 7 p.m. This open house will include a sprinkler demo and have FireSmart information along with fire truck tours and hot dogs.
Community-Wide FireSmart Day will take place the following Saturday (May 10) when residents can place yard waste for pick-up in the parking lane or designated high-density pick-up areas. Paper bags for yard waste will be available at the Activity Centre.
In addition, the Canadian Forest Service and FP Innovations will be releasing new reports about the wildfire next month.
