Jasper wildfire: Alberta government expects to make request for military assistance

globalnews.ca:

Now that the townsite in Jasper National Park has been evacuated because of the threats posed by at least two wildfires, Alberta’s forestry and parks minister said Wednesday that he expects his government will make a request for assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces.

“We’ll be asking for that shortly, probably,” Todd Loewen told Global News.

“We need to make sure that when we ask for help like that we’re set up and the fire is in a situation where we can use those kinds of personnel.”

An evacuation order was issued for the entire park, including the Jasper townsite, on Monday night and officials estimate about 25,000 people were forced to leave.

According to officials, the evacuation of the townsite was complete as of Tuesday night but efforts to rescue any hikers remaining in the backcountry by helicopter were ongoing.

Because of where the wildfire hazard is, evacuees were forced to head west out of Jasper and into British Columbia. While a welcome centre was set up in Valemount, B.C., the community soon became overwhelmed with incoming people and the centre has since been closed.

Alberta emergency officials said B.C. is not in a position to accept wildfire evacuees from Alberta currently as it is already tight on space and resources as it deals with its own wildfires and wildfire evacuations. As a result, reception centres for evacuees have been set up in Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie. Evacuees have been forced to take long detours to get to those cities as a result of having to head west when leaving Jasper.

Addison McNeill, 24, who lives in Jasper, told The Canadian Press that receiving an evacuation alert Monday night was stressful and that the drive out was slow as cars made their way down the road amid