Jasper volunteer firefighter watches as home burns to the ground: ‘That fire was rolling’

globalnews.ca:

A volunteer firefighter in Jasper is choosing to focus on the positives, after watching her family home burn to the ground amid a devastating wildfire in the western Alberta mountain town.As thousands of people fled Jasper National Park earlier this week, first responders stayed behind to protect their community. That includes Kimberley Stark.The owner of Bear’s Paw Bakery, Stark is also a volunteer firefighter.

She remained on the ground in Jasper while her young family was forced to flee on Monday night with the rest of the town.“My family evacuated with everybody else. I have three small children and they went off with the nanny and my fur family,” Stark said Thursday morning.Since then, she’s be on the front lines, doing her best alongside other emergency crews to protect the town.“It was a tough go.

That fire was rolling,” Stark recalled. “This was big.

It was overwhelming.”While an eternal optimist, Stark couldn’t help but break down for a moment on Wednesday, as she watched her family home go up in flames.“I have a video of my house starting on fire,” she said.Stark said she and fellow firefighters were conducting “bump and roll” around the community, which means you go around town and if you see flame and fire, you put it out.As they were driving around, they came upon her neighbourhood.“I stopped for two seconds as we rolled past my house and I turned on a couple sprinklers,” Stark said.“Houses there are so tight and the problem is there are some roof types that are not necessarily great for forest fires and even if you put it out, the next ember starts it again and those roofs goes real fast. And once it gets in the eaves, we don’t have the equipment to put out every structure fire when there’s … multiple homes