'Aggressive fire behaviour' led to sudden evacuation of Jasper, Parks Canada says

Parks Canada staff say aggressive fire behaviour prompted the decision to have thousands of people flee the Jasper area late Monday night. 

Parks Canada said at a media briefing Tuesday evening that the evacuation of the remaining hikers in the backcountry is still ongoing, but thousands of people have safely evacuated the park and the town.

Up to 25,000 residents and visitors were evacuated since the order was made Monday night, as two fires raged south and north of Jasper, reaching within 12 kilometres of the townsite. 

By Tuesday afternoon, the wildfire south of the town had burned a minimum of 6,750 hectares, Parks Canada said, and the north wildfire, located between the Jasper Transfer Station and the Jasper Air Strip on both sides of Highway 16, had burned at least 270 hectares.

When asked how the fire was able to come so close to the townsite before the alert was sent, incident commander Katie Ellsworth recounted a rapidly evolving situation leading up to the evacuation order. 

"The situation unfolded very, very quickly," Ellsworth said, noting it was only a two-hour time frame from the start of the fires to when they were estimated to be of significant size.

"These fires, were exhibiting aggressive, aggressive fire behaviour."

Ellsworth and her assistant fire management officer received the first report of the north wildfire at about 7 p.m. Monday, she said.

About 30 minutes after going out to suppress that fire, they received another report of a wildfire south of the townsite near Kerkeslin campground, Ellsworth said.

Within 10 minutes, there was another report of a fire from the Leach Lake area, which is about 30 kilometres southwest of the townsite. 

"Within another 10 minutes, there was another report of a smoke," Ellsworth said. "The winds were gusting upwards of 20 to 30 kilometres per hour in Jasper and it was hot: 30-plus degrees Celsius with 20 per cent humidity, maximum."

By 8 p.m., Ellsworth said, it was clear that it was time to call an evacuation alert. 

And there was no time to prepare the community before calling the evacuation order at 10 p.m., Ellsworth said. 

"Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions at the time and the gusting strong winds, it was really quickly very apparent that life safety needed to come first and we needed to begin evacuation immediately," Ellsworth said.