Jasper residents flood Parks Canada with worries over what's left behind

Parks Canada said requests have poured in from people asking for help in retrieving important personal items or to remove food, fridges and freezers from their homes in Jasper.

Parks Canada says it realizes wildfire evacuees from Jasper worry about what rotting food will do to their homes and that others wonder when a critical highway through the national park will reopen, but it says the blaze continues to burn out of control and remains a threat to the town.

A statement from the federal agency on Sunday said requests have poured in from people asking for help in retrieving important personal items or to remove food, fridges and freezers.

The statement said that while hot spots in the town have been extinguished, resources are tied up in protecting the community from the remaining wildfire risks in the park that surrounds it and the requests cannot be accommodated.

"Rotting food in fridges and freezers without power can unfortunately result in contamination to homes. We’re aware of this, and are working to restore power to as much of the townsite as possible in order to minimize this risk," Parks Canada said in the statement, released on Sunday.

"This is the largest wildfire recorded in Jasper National Park in the last 100 years, and ensuring that residents and visitors are safe to return will take time."

The statement also noted incident staff are working on a plan to reopen Highway 16, a critical east-west route that runs through the park and townsite, as well as Icefields Parkway 93N. But it said there is no timeline for that yet.

"We know that many people were forced to leave their belongings, trailers or campers behind in the campgrounds during the evacuation. Doing so was critical in the successful evacuation of Jasper National Park," the statement said.