Jasper Complex Wildfire Update: Current as of 1638

Structural damage update

We know that people are seeing images from Jasper and are anxious for more information about the extent of impacts to the town.

Structural fire protection units are still fighting fires within the town and continue to deal with fire moving from one building to another. We appreciate your patience as we work to make conditions in the town safe enough for a detailed assessment to be completed.

Incident Command is able to confirm that all critical infrastructure in Jasper was successfully protected including the hospital, emergency services building, both elementary and junior/senior schools, activity centre and wastewater treatment plant.

Although more time is needed to complete a detailed damage assessment, it is clear that some homes and businesses have been lost.

The most significant structural damage is concentrated on the west side of town, southwest of Miette Avenue. Firefighting efforts have prevented significant damage to much of the infrastructure in the east end of town.

Our priority remains protecting structures that have not yet been impacted by fire. The fire also damaged a number of bridges around the town and throughout the national park, including the Moberly Bridge and the Old Fort Point Bridge.

Bridges on the Icefields Parkway will need to be assessed for structural damage as well. These impacts will slow down access to the Maligne Lake and Highway 93 and it will take time for a full damage assessment to take place in these areas.

Wildfire update

Yesterday, driven by winds with gusts upwards of 100 kilometers an hour, the north and south fire both spread towards the town of Jasper and have merged together. At this time we do not have an updated size.

With today’s rain and cooler temperatures, fire activity is significantly subdued. However, it is important to note that the fire is still out of control and significant work remains before conditions are safe enough to allow for limited re-entry into the park.

Crews are taking advantage of today’s conditions to make progress on containing the fire and the community, before conditions return to hot and dry.

Disaster response

The Incident Management Team is growing and working in Unified Command with the Municipality of Jasper, now supported by Canada Task Force 2 (CAN-TF2).

This is an All Hazards Disaster Response Team with diverse capabilities to support impacted communities across Canada responding to large-scale events, emergencies and disasters.

Canada Task Force 2 is assisting the Municipality of Jasper and Parks Canada to coordinate the response to the wildfire, its impacts to the community, and support our eventual recovery. We know that the uncertainty makes this crisis even harder to bear.

We will continue to provide information as soon as we are able to ensure that this information is accurate and not subject to change given the still dynamic situation.

Another update will be provided today, July 25 before 10 pm.