Jasper residents to tour town starting Sunday amid expected increased wildfire activity

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The first of Jasper’s displaced residents will be headed home to tour the townsite on Sunday.

In a Saturday update, the province said Jasper residents could register to tour the town online, but priority access will be for people whose homes have been lost or damaged in the wildfire.

Joe Zatylny, deputy managing director for the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said the first tour buses will depart Sunday from Edmonton and Hinton, but access will be depend as the wildfire situation in Jasper National Park continues to fluctuate. 

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“We know returning to the community for the first time can be very difficult for residents, so mental health and support referral services will be available on the tour to help people prepare for seeing the disaster site as well as on the buses and afterwards to ensure people know where they can turn to for help again,” Zatylny said.

Zatylny said initially, no one will be allowed to leave the bus while inside the national park. Residents who have registered will be contacted with more details, he said.

Increased fire activity expected

Officials expect more wildfire activity in the coming days as firefighters continue to battle blazes razing the Jasper area.

At a press conference on Saturday, Parks Canada officials said they saw some wildfire activity pick up “very quickly” on Friday afternoon.

Dean MacDonald, deputy incident commander for Parks Canada, said the fire size has decreased from 39,000 hectares to 32,000, but noted the number is constantly fluctuating. 

“Today, we expect the same fire behaviour or more again, hot and dry,” MacDonald said.

“Not a surprise, but we’ve got the right resources, lots of structure protection in place to ensure that we have a safe day today as well for folks to also understand, we also have night vision helicopters able to give us our night suppression capacity.”

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Cleaning up and restoring critical services

Mathew Conte, fire chief for the Municipality of Jasper, said crews are on the ground in Jasper, ensuring critical infrastructure and services are back up and running.

Utility crews ensured the hydrant system and water pressure have been maintained as of Friday, Conte said. Crews have completed flushing on the north end of town, and the system is back up and running to all homes and businesses to the north end of the firebreak, he said.

Crews continue to isolate damaged areas to the waterline on the south end of town, Conte said. Water sampling has been sent to the province for testing with results expected on Tuesday, he said.

“Our facilities team is working to ensure that all municipal structures and all our critical infrastructure (are) up and running. So far, we have no reported damage to any of those buildings,” Conte said.

“We do have occupational hygienists coming in next week to prepare those buildings and make sure that they’re clean and air quality is consistent and acceptable to re-enter those buildings.”

Conte said they are expected to finish the cleanup of damage to hazardous tree material on Saturday.

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A reception centre is set to open in Hinton later next week.

ctran@postmedia.com
@kccindytran

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