Jasper residents return to wildfire-ravaged townsite as re-entry begins
Community members need space to grieve their losses, mayor says
People forced from their homes by a monster wildfire have begun returning to Jasper, Alta., to sift through the ashes of their devastated community.
Before the town opened to residents Friday, a line of headlights flashed against the darkness as returning evacuees waited for re-entry to begin.
As the sun began to peek over the Rockies, Highway 16 opened and a procession of trucks and vehicles began snaking their way through Jasper National Park toward the wildfire-ravaged community.
A Canadian flag flapped along the highway from a bright red fire truck with ladder extended. "Welcome Back" was written on a banner at the RCMP checkpoint.
Clouds filled the sky and smoke hung heavy in the air. Those driving in from the east saw swaths of charred forests, trees burned black like used matches.
Residents have been warned to brace for a harsh new reality. Residents of the historic national park townsite will travel back to a community unrecognizable from the one they left behind nearly four weeks ago.
In all, 358 of Jasper's 1,113 buildings were lost to the fire that ripped through the town on the evening of July 24, less than 48 hours after a mass evacuation was called, ordering 25,000 residents and visitors to flee the townsite and national park.
Entire neighbourhoods on the southern side of town were destroyed.
Services remain scant. The rebuild is expected to take years.
Mike Kertesz, a Jasper resident of 30 years, lined up along the highway hours before the gates opened Friday morning, anxious to return home.
Despite seeing images of the wildfire damage, he expects it will be a shock to see the destruction firsthand.
"This is our community," Kertesz said in an interview from the shoulder of the highway before the gates opened.
"This is where we raised our kids and it's going to look a lot different."
Kertesz will be checking on his own home and two others belonging to his relatives. He said he will be focused on checking for any smoke, water, or sewage damage and ridding the homes of spoiled fridges and freezers.
He said he's been losing sleep thinking about the hard work ahead as recovery begins.
Kertesz describes himself as one of the fortunate ones. His family home on the east side of the townsite is still standing.
He's thankful to firefighters for saving what they could and grateful that he's in a position to help his neighbours whose homes were destroyed.
"There's a lot of people in this town who have completely lost everything," he said. "And so, we're ready to come back and get our lives together, but also, to help the whole community."
Only residents and support people who are helping them deal the disaster will be granted access to the townsite. All areas outside the town remain closed, including Highway 93 to the south.
RCMP officers have been tasked with patrolling the town's east entrance and turning outsiders away.
A difficult homecoming
Residents are being advised to approach their damaged properties with caution and to prepare for the shock of seeing the damage.
Officials have cautioned of the risks of returning to the devastation zone, from toxic waste, unstable structures and smoke so dense returning evacuees have been advised to wear N95 masks.
"The photos you have seen will not prepare you for the smell," the municipality cautioned in a statement to evacuees.
"The state of Jasper is very different now. The process of returning may be intense."
Clara Adriano, who has operated a commercial laundry in the community since 2017, was among the first flood of evacuees to return on Friday.
Her home survived but her business was destroyed. The beige, two-storey building with rust-coloured roof has been reduced to rubble — a field of black, skeletal wreckage, encircled in blue safety fencing.
Adriano said she felt unprepared for the shock of seeing the charred remnants of the property, and entire neighbourhoods incinerated.
Wearing an N95 mask to shield herself against the rancid smells, she struggled to grasp the scale of the damage.
"As you enter into the town and see the fire residue, and everything around it, that is when it becomes emotional," she said in an interview.
"And then, as I entered here, in the industrial area, and seeing our laundry and all places surrounding it, just gone.,that's a really emotional feeling. I'm sure it is going to be, for many Jasperites who are returning, especially those who lost their homes."
Adriano said she wants to rebuild and looks forward to reuniting with neighbours after spending so many weeks scattered across western provinces.
"This is home," she said. "And I know for a fact that we will come out stronger, together. That's the only way to move forward."
Evacuees who lost their homes are being urged to use their first hours and days in Jasper to assess their losses and carefully document the damage.
Officials have cautioned that no one should count on spending the night.
Many properties still standing have sustained significant damage from smoke, heat, and water from burst pipes and efforts to douse the flames.
There are no accommodations in place for those whose homes were lost and services, including running water, remain spotty.
The wildfire that destroyed one-third of the buildings in Jasper moved in from the south, spitting embers and shooting flames hundreds of metres into the sky.
Wind-whipped and fuelled by bone-dry conditions, it defied all firefighting efforts and crossed into the townsite, lighting up homes and businesses in sheets of orange.
The fire eventually merged with another blaze that had been menacing from the north and has now consumed more than 33,000 hectares.
'A communal loss'
Matricia Bauer said she has been forcing herself to look at photos and footage of the destruction to help her brace herself for what she will see.
She will return to Jasper early Friday morning but only plans to stay for a few hours to assess the damage.
Her condo survived but properties surrounding her home on the western edge of the townsite have been gutted. She expects her home sustained significant smoke damage.
"We were pretty close to the fire," Bauer said. "It came right up, all around us."
Bauer hails, from Sturgeon Lake Cree First Nation a community devastated by fire last summer, but has lived in Jasper for more than a decade. She operates Warrior Women, an Indigenous tourism guide operation that showcases the region's Indigenous culture.
She said it will take time for the community to heal.
"There's a little bit of survivor guilt that my place is still standing, but I also don't know what I'm walking into," she said. "My heart breaks every time I learn of somebody whose place has burned down.
"It's not just my loss, it's a communal loss."
The wildfire continues to burn within the national park. A state of emergency and an evacuation alert will remain in effect, and residents must be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.
Re-entry to Jasper was made possible by critical progress made on the fire line. The fire's northern perimeter, which poses the biggest threat to the community, has been contained.
The flames, however, are expected to remain a volatile presence within the park for months.
Crews expect to be fighting the fire until late in the fall and plumes of smoke will continue to billow over the skyline, long after residents return.
Mayor Richard Ireland said seeing fire on the landscape will be part of a difficult "new normal" for Jasper residents.
"Photographs and images on television cannot convey the sense of loss that will be felt in the hearts of residents when they see their homes and their town again," he said.
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With files from Madeleine Cummings and Sam Samson