Jasper National Park wildfire evacuee on ‘shock’ of being told to flee area
Jasper National Park in western Alberta on Monday are talking about what it was like to flee after a wildfire evacuation order was issued at this busy time of year for the area.“It’s wall-to-wall traffic,” said Carolyn Campbell, of Edmonton, in a phone interview with The Canadian Press from her vehicle.“(The smoke) is pretty thick. We’ve got masks in the car.”The mountainous park normally sees full hotels and campgrounds in mid-July.
Richard Ireland, the mayor of the Municipality of Jasper, spoke to Global News about the situation Monday night and said officials “want people to remain in an orderly state as much as possible.”“Wildfire is an unfolding event, things can change rapidly. We take the best information that we can get from those on the front lines, and of course we want to prevent any sense of alarm or panic.”Ireland was speaking from Crossfield, Alta.At a news conference about Alberta’s wildfire situation that was held via video call at about 10 a.m.
local time on Tuesday, Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis said of the fires burning in the national park, one of them is located about 12 kilometres south of the Jasper townsite “on both sides of the river.”“And wind may exacerbate the situation.”Officials issued an evacuation order at about 10 p.m. local on Monday amid a provincewide heat wave and as parts of Alberta were experiencing windy conditions.
The entire park, including the townsite, was included in the evacuation order.People were told they needed to be out of the park by 3 a.m. local time and a local state of emergency was declared.Sebastien Delorme, who works in the national park, told Global News there has been more fire activity in Jasper recently.“We actually had one at our
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