The scene near the Jasper National Park townsite on July 24/Parks Canada

Parks Canada says that all critical infrastructure in Jasper National Park’s townsite has been protected from out-of-control wildfires including the hospital, emergency services building, both elementary and junior/senior schools, activity center and wastewater treatment plant.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested that 30 to 50 per cent of the town’s structures may have been damaged but Parks Canada would only say “it is clear that some homes and businesses have been lost” and more time is needed for a detailed damage assessment.

Roughly 25,000 people — residents and visitors — have been safely evacuated from the Alberta mountain park this week. Structural fire protection units continue to fight fires moving from one building to another.

“Our priority remains protecting structures that have not yet been impacted by fire,” Parks Canada said.

The most significant damage is in the west side of town, southwest of Miette Avenue, while firefighting efforts have prevented significant damage to much of the east end. The fire damaged a number of bridges around the town and throughout the park, including the Moberly and Old Fort Point bridges. Bridges on the Icefields Parkway will need to be assessed for structural damage. These impacts will slow down access to the Maligne Lake and Hwy. 93 and it will take time for a full damage assessment to take place in these areas.

This emergency evolved rapidly from the first report of a wildfire to the northeast of town just after 7 p.m on July 22., to a second fire south of town shortly after. Within 48 hours, the wildfires reached the town.

Crews have been fighting a wildfire in Jasper National Park all week that spread into the townsite/Parks Canada

Driven by winds with gusts upwards of 60 miles an hour, the north and south fire both spread towards the town and merged by Wednesday. Thursday’s rain and cooler temperatures helped subdue things and should continue for 72 hours. But Parks Canada said “the fire is still out of control and significant work remains before conditions are safe enough to allow for limited re-entry into the park.” Crews are making progress before conditions return to hot and dry.”

Accurately mapping the "Jasper Wildfire Complex" (the name for what started as two fires) has been a challenge because of strong winds, extreme fire behavior, smoke and reclocating the incident management team to Hinton. Aircraft haven't been able to fly safely and satellite imaging was obscured by yesterday's thick cloud cover. The fire is now estimated to be nearly 90,000 acres (36,000 hectares).

A complex refers to more than one wildfire. The Jasper Wildfire Complex now includes the combined North and South wildfires and the Utopia wildfire near Miette Hot Springs that started on July 19. The Utopia Wildfire was almost being held before the other wildfires started and will be reassessed on July 26.

 The Incident Management Team is growing and working in Unified Command with the Municipality of Jasper, now supported by Canada Task Force 2. This is an all hazards disaster response team with diverse capabilities to support impacted communities across Canada responding to large-scale events, emergencies and disasters.

“While we understand people are desperate to know about the status of our community, homes, work places, businesses, and cherished places we will need some time to stabilize this incident as we access and assess structures,” Parks Canada said.

The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge says that while its hotel did incur fire damage, most of its structures, including the main lodge, remain standing and intact. “While we will need time to assess the full scale of the damage and the timelines required for repair and restoration, we are deeply relieved that much of the property was spared and the resort will re-open in the future,” it said.

The scene in Jasper National Park on July 24 as crews tried to save town infrastructure from a wildfire/Parks Canada