‘There may not be anything to go back to, there may just be rubble . . . it’s pretty devastating’
Wildfire refugees who reached Calgary after often harrowing journeys expressed shock and horror at the charred images of a Jasper they’d called home a few days before.
“I’m numb, to me Jasper was home,” said Chantal Bilodeau, as she pondered the situation with friends outside the Shouldice Arena reception centre in northwest Calgary.
“We were told (a devastating wildfire) was a matter of when, not if.”
Bilodeau, who managed a hotel cleaning team, said the rest of her staff had taken refuge in Edmonton, adding she doesn’t expect there’ll be a job to return to.
“At least everyone’s kind of together and we have support,” she said.
For now, Bilodeau said she’ll be staying at friend Alexis Jones’ family home in Airdrie.
Jones, who worked in a Jasper gift shop, said she managed to flee with clothes and sentimental items but expects to lose all of her other belongings.
“There may not be anything to go back to, there may just be rubble . . . it’s pretty devastating,” said Jones, 28.
“They’re going to have to do a lot of rebuilding with a long time of grief.”
When she heard Wednesday that many of the firefighters were leaving Jasper, Jones said she feared the worst and she admitted she never thought such a catastrophe would unfold.
“I was more naive and hopeful that it’d be alright,” said Jones.
‘It’s happening again’: Ukrainian who fled war then had to flee wildfire
Restaurant server Alice Varshavska fled war in her native Ukraine in 2022 only to escape wildfire in Jasper, leaving behind her home and restaurant server position that could both be obliterated.
“I thought, ‘OK, we’ve found home, we can feel good here’ . . . then all these tears — it’s happening again,” said Varshavska, 26, who hails from Vinnytsa, Ukraine.
“Maybe it makes me stronger . . . if I break down, what will I do, sit and cry? Nothing is going to change.”
Monday, she said, began like any other day, with work serving diners but when she finished her shift, she encountered a blizzard of ash from fast-approaching wildfires and a dense blanket of smoke.
But she never expected to leave everything in Jasper behind, perhaps permanently.
“I thought, ‘Maybe it’ll be a vacation, hopefully it’s going to pass,’” said Varshavska.
Instead, she found herself frantically packing up her documents, computers and phone in a five-minute rush and then joined an exodus that took her to Valemont and Clearwater, B.C. and then Calgary.
Images of the destruction she narrowly escaped, she said, are horrifying.
“It’s all burnt — even houses made of stone,” said Varshavska.
“Maybe I’ll get a job in Calgary, start everything fresh.”
‘Swung between laughing and crying’
As she spoke, groups of people, weary from the long trek from Jasper and stunned by the loss of what they’d left behind, arrived at the reception centre.
One of them was Skye MacKenzie, 28, who showed up with three friends, convinced that her place of employment, the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, would be gone. (Its owners have said the fire reached the property, but they aren’t certain of the damage.)
“It’s overwhelming, we’ve swung between laughing and crying,” said MacKenzie, who’d worked at the hotel for a year.
She managed a laugh, recounting what she chose to bring with and what she left.
“I packed my tarot cards but not my laptop,” said MacKenzie, who then turned serious.
“I’ve probably lost $8,000 to $10,000 worth of stuff — electronics, clothes and 80 per cent of us don’t have insurance because we’re employer tenants.
“People have lost their whole lives.”
A dense pall of wildfire smoke that had descended on Calgary, she said, was a reminder of the traumatic scene she’d fled.
The trek to Calgary, she said, provided more reminder of the wildfire crisis gripping Alberta and B.C.
“Just after we’d gone through Revelstoke, they had their evacuation alert and Golden, too,” said the woman who wasn’t sure what her future holds.
“I’m not going back to (my native) Ontario, I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” said MacKenzie.
‘The town is gone now’
Don Woodcox said he’s still hopeful his job site — the Maligne Lake Lodge outside the townsite — has survived the wildfire.
But the prospects for the town and other areas of Jasper National Park are horrifying, said Woodcox, 47.
“It’s terrifying, seeing pictures of it,” he said.
“My boss has lost her house and the CEO has lost his house, too.”
Woodcox said he’s been provided a hotel room in Calgary but doesn’t know how long he’ll need it.
“It’ll be longer than a week because the town is gone now,” he said.