The Chetamon Mountain Fire in Jasper National Park is estimated to cover an area of about 5,500 hectares, Parks Canada announced Thursday morning. The fire is 15 kilometers north of Jasper, which is struggling to restore power after an outage. Officials said the fire does not currently pose a threat to the city. During a news availability Thursday morning, Mayor Richard Ireland said the fire is still active and expected to grow more intense in the coming days. “If the fire area does not receive significant rainfall, further damage to power infrastructure remains possible, as does a potential fire threat to the community.” Environment Canada’s forecast for the region calls for a 30 per cent chance of rain Thursday and overnight followed by three days of warm weather. “The situation remains precarious,” Ireland said. “Now is not the time to visit Jasper or Jasper National Park.” Smoky conditions were expected to increase on Thursday. (Parks Canada) The city lost power over the weekend due to the fire, and Atco has since been working to restore it in phases by moving the system to backup generators. The entire city briefly lost power again on Wednesday afternoon. By early Thursday morning, more than 60 percent of Jasper had been restored before experiencing another outage around 9:45 a.m. “The complexity of integrating generator power into a utility system in a community of this size and scale is extremely challenging,” said Amanda Mattern, regional director of Atco. “Connecting a generator power system would normally require weeks of engineering design and testing before we could go live.” Mattern said a full assessment of the transportation infrastructure is still underway. Atco teams are waiting for the area to be deemed safe to enter under escort from Parks Canada and complete a full assessment. The city is expected to remain without power for weeks. Residents and businesses have been asked to conserve electricity as generator power is not as reliable as the grid.
Campsite closed
Katie Ellsworth, Parks Canada fire management officer, said even the incident command post was down except for the 911 call center. “We would like to reiterate and reiterate the mayor’s message that this is not the time to visit Jasper at this time.” Ellsworth said Parks Canada has extended the closure of some areas to ensure safety and conserve energy. According to a Parks Canada news release, all reservable campgrounds are closed — Whistlers, Wapiti, Wabasso and Miette — and the majority of self-registration campgrounds are closed for the season. The Pyramid Bench area north of the city has also been closed for the installation of a high volume sprinkler as a precautionary measure. Parks Canada said smoky conditions are expected to increase and authorities are prepared to use traffic control on Highway 16 if necessary. Closing the freeway would be a last resort. Alberta air tankers are being used to place long-term retardant lines to the northeast of the fire to limit its growth, Ellsworth said. He said the fire grew larger Wednesday during the afternoon rush hour, although the size estimate remained unchanged. The situation has affected Clearwater, BC, near Wells Gray Provincial Park, which is southwest of Jasper National Park. Claire Hanna, executive director of Tourism Wells Gray, said there were people at the town’s tourist information center asking for help making alternative plans instead of continuing to Jasper. “We find that either people stay longer in Clearwater or North Thompson Valley, and then they also eventually make plans to divert to the city of Jasper to try to avoid that if they can,” he said.
