Craig Gilbert | [email protected]
Marie-France Miron hopes she’s wrong about the threat of wildfire near the Jasper townsite.
She was one of as many as 200 people who packed the town’s fire hall bays for an open house on wildfire and evacuation preparation followed by talks from fire chief and protective services director Greg Van Tighem and Tanya Letcher, a Parks Canada fire expert.
With a multi-agency open house preceding the presentations, estimates put the number of folks who passed through closer to 400.
Miron, a Jasperite since 2005, was also one of a number of people who said Parks should just issue a blanket fire ban in and around the townsite for the summer.
“It’s the closest I’ve been” to a wildfire reaching Jasper since moving here in 2005, she told the Fitzhugh after the formalities. “No, I wasn’t happy with the response from Parks. I don’t feel safe. There’s way more that should have been done.
“I hope I’m wrong.”
Miron and others including an “anxious” John Ward, who got the conversation rolling with the first question from the crowd, see no reason to tempt fate (see related letter pg. 6).
Ward said there were illegal fires in Wapiti and Whistlers campgrounds, which he described as surrounded by a forest that is “80 per cent dead,” during the about two-month fire ban last year.
“Is Parks ready to limit visitor expectations and ban fires?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Letcher responded. “We let the weather and the fire danger dictate what we do.”
Only 10 illegal fires were reported last summer.
“If they’re happening, we’re not hearing about them.”
She said there is a balance of concerns Parks has to weigh including ecological interests like the health of the soil, which can be affected by clear-cutting, and of the wildlife that depends on the cover of the forest, and of water bodies. This is why they haven’t just made a 100-metre cut around the townsite as some in attendance suggested, to put it mildly.
“If the park catches fire, there won’t be any more trees or animals, so what?” one said.
Letcher said fire breaks are effective in bringing an out-of-control crown fire literally back to Earth and making the blaze more manageable for firefighters.
Van Tighem said they have a “very good” formula for forest thinning. He added that the Waterton fire break “basically saved the town. It does work.
“We’re going to be doing it on quite a bigger scale this November.”
Much his presentation focused on fire preparedness, including FireSmarting properties to remove hazards including ornamental plants. He said in Fort McMurray, it was hazards like shrubs with dried material collected underneath that acted as ember accumulators.
He used video to demonstrated this was how the fire lurched forward within the city, how it weaved through the Beacon Hill neighbourhood through alleys by jumping from hazard to hazard and why it burned this house and not that.
“That fire was no different from any other,” he said. “‘The Beast’ was not the fire to me. The Beast was the ember spotting. Look at your home as an ember accumulator. People who deal with it are likelier to survive.”
He said every Jasper homeowner is responsible for a 10-metre radius around the house.
“You’re responsible for your backyard,” he said. “We’re willing to help at the fire department but if you follow the FireSmart guidelines you’ll go a long way to being a safer neighbour.”
What if Mr. Rogers has a shrub right against his house?
“A little peer pressure doesn’t hurt, either.”
The rest was about evacuating.
“We don’t have enough busses in Jasper” to evacuate everyone without a car, he said. “But you could buddy up. You throw your gear in the car and go camping on the other side of Edmonton for the week. You wouldn’t have a care in the world.”
Jasper has been divided into 10 evacuation zones. There will be five collection points throughout town for those that need a lift out. Eventually, either a resident with room in the vehicle or a dedicated evacuation bus would pick you up, according to the plan.
That said: “The idea is you become part of the solution so we can deal with 30,000 tourists.”
Mayor Richard Ireland and a number of council members including Rico Damota and Helen Kelleher-Empey were present.
“It’s an amazing turnout,” Coun. Jenna McGrath said. “It’s obvious this was necessary. People are interested and are wanting as much information as possible.”
She wasn’t surprised by the questions asked.
“It’s exactly what the community is feeling right now.”
The crowd dissipated, quickly. Firefighters stacked chairs and broke down tables, and answered questions from those that remained.
Then came what the karmically inclined mayhap call a measure of mercy.
It rained.
