“I had a glimmer of hope. We came to the streetcorner and saw the foundation — charred remains. The first floor had collapsed,” said Ireland
HINTON — Jasper’s mayor received devastating news during a tour of the scorched townsite Friday evening.
Travelling through the town with Premier Danielle Smith and federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan, Mayor Richard Ireland discovered that his own home was among the wreckage of the blaze.
“I could see down the lane my back fence, the roof of my garage, my neighbour’s house. I had a glimmer of hope. We came to the streetcorner and saw the foundation — charred remains. The first floor had collapsed,” said Ireland.
“There are hundreds of houses, and whole neighbourhoods, gone,” said Ireland as the words caught in his throat.
Smith spoke about rebuilding the Town of Jasper as she and federal met with journalists Friday before touring the townsite.
“There will be many emotions as we go through all of this, especially for the residents of Jasper. But together we’ll get through this and we will build back, and no matter what comes, we’re not going to lose the magic of Jasper,” said Smith at a press conference in Hinton.
Earlier Friday, Smith and Sajjan toured the Hinton Command Centre, which was established after a hard evacuation of Jasper for all personnel on Wednesday night. Since then, the Hinton centre has quarterbacked the ongoing response to the wildfire, which Smith confirmed is still burning out of control, spanning more than 36,000 hectares.
“The upside of that is that it means close to 70 per cent of the town has low-to-no damage,” said Smith.
She said the numbers were actually better than expected. As horrific images of burnt-out buildings and charred structures circulated online, many had thought the worst for the small mountain town. Smith, Sajjan and Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland all praised the work of the fire crews who preserved most of the town’s structure, including all of its vital infrastructure.
“I do want to express deep gratitude to the brave men and women currently on the ground in Jasper who are working tirelessly to save as much as they can,” said Smith.
In his remarks, Sajjan spoke directly to the firefighters who worked in the region.
“To all the people who are involved with fighting this wildfire (I) just want to say absolutely thank you. What you had to go through was absolutely horrendous and your courage saved so many lives for evacuating people,” said Sajjan.
Ireland reassured that the crews on the ground did everything they could and had all the help they could, offering that the resulting damage was a testament to their success and hard work and not a lack of resources, nor a failure.
Sajjan echoed Ireland’s sentiments when questioned about how the federal government might learn from the Jasper wildfire complex going forward.
“They actually talked about it in the briefing that we got, the preparation that had been done here is actually first class. From tabletop exercises to actual drills on the ground with all the different agencies and the provincial, federal, everybody involved,” said Sajjan.
“We’ve been already talking about how do we use these lessons, about how to apply them across the country,” said Sajjan.
Of 1,113 structures in the community, 358 were destroyed.
Ireland was among the first residents to have the opportunity to return to his home, and there is still no estimate as to when his fellow Jasperites will be allowed to re-enter. Smith reminded residents that in other wildfire cases such as Fort McMurray, it took weeks before residents were allowed back in.
He said the fact 70 per cent of structures in town were relatively unscathed was a positive, but on an individual level it was meaningless — a sentiment he said others may share as they find their own homes burned.
With the fire continuing to burn out of control, it could be some time before residents can return home. Smith confirmed that property owners of burned homes and businesses are being notified by phone call.
Smith confirmed that the many evacuees will be fast-tracked into the emergency financial benefit, which usually has a waiting period of a week and consists of a one-time payment of $1,250 per adult and $550 for children.
The provincial and federal governments have also agreed to match donations to the Red Cross to help finance the many services that the Red Cross will offer to Jasperites.