Jasper visitors warned: 'We don't need another cathartic experience for your tourism entertainment'
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The thing that's striking about a wildfire's aftermath is how random the damage is. One neighbourhood is razed, the next is intact. One home stands on a street, while the rest of the houses were destroyed. A decimated Esso station by the rail tracks sits right across the street from a Montana's restaurant that's intact and open for business. The fire spread into town by burning embers that were catapulted into neighbourhoods by high winds. So, it was as if Mother Nature played a fiery game of Russian Roulette. A house got hit and started to burn, while the next street avoided the fire.
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'It was hit and miss,' said Ward.
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And that random nature of the fire makes it hard for residents to process what happened to their town. Some lost everything, some didn't. And, mentally, that might be tougher than if the entire town had burned.
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Survivor's guilt is a very real thing in Jasper, said Smith. And he recognized it when Jasper was reopened and people were first brought back into town to find out if they'd lost everything — or not.
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'The first impression when you come into town was, gee, it's not so bad, everything's here,' said Smith. 'But you drive down main street, and then you get to the far end, and it was like, oh yeah, wow. They were bringing in residents in busloads to drive around and show them the areas that were affected. And then the other folks come in, and then there's the other side of that. They feel bad because their stuff didn't burn.'
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Calgary Herald
20 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Jasper visitors warned: 'We don't need another cathartic experience for your tourism entertainment'
Article content Article content The thing that's striking about a wildfire's aftermath is how random the damage is. One neighbourhood is razed, the next is intact. One home stands on a street, while the rest of the houses were destroyed. A decimated Esso station by the rail tracks sits right across the street from a Montana's restaurant that's intact and open for business. The fire spread into town by burning embers that were catapulted into neighbourhoods by high winds. So, it was as if Mother Nature played a fiery game of Russian Roulette. A house got hit and started to burn, while the next street avoided the fire. Article content 'It was hit and miss,' said Ward. Article content And that random nature of the fire makes it hard for residents to process what happened to their town. Some lost everything, some didn't. And, mentally, that might be tougher than if the entire town had burned. Article content Survivor's guilt is a very real thing in Jasper, said Smith. And he recognized it when Jasper was reopened and people were first brought back into town to find out if they'd lost everything — or not. Article content Article content 'The first impression when you come into town was, gee, it's not so bad, everything's here,' said Smith. 'But you drive down main street, and then you get to the far end, and it was like, oh yeah, wow. They were bringing in residents in busloads to drive around and show them the areas that were affected. And then the other folks come in, and then there's the other side of that. They feel bad because their stuff didn't burn.'
Edmonton Journal
21 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
Jasper visitors warned: 'We don't need another cathartic experience for your tourism entertainment'
Article content Article content The thing that's striking about a wildfire's aftermath is how random the damage is. One neighbourhood is razed, the next is intact. One home stands on a street, while the rest of the houses were destroyed. A decimated Esso station by the rail tracks sits right across the street from a Montana's restaurant that's intact and open for business. The fire spread into town by burning embers that were catapulted into neighbourhoods by high winds. So, it was as if Mother Nature played a fiery game of Russian Roulette. A house got hit and started to burn, while the next street avoided the fire. Article content 'It was hit and miss,' said Ward. Article content And that random nature of the fire makes it hard for residents to process what happened to their town. Some lost everything, some didn't. And, mentally, that might be tougher than if the entire town had burned. Article content Survivor's guilt is a very real thing in Jasper, said Smith. And he recognized it when Jasper was reopened and people were first brought back into town to find out if they'd lost everything — or not. Article content Article content 'The first impression when you come into town was, gee, it's not so bad, everything's here,' said Smith. 'But you drive down main street, and then you get to the far end, and it was like, oh yeah, wow. They were bringing in residents in busloads to drive around and show them the areas that were affected. And then the other folks come in, and then there's the other side of that. They feel bad because their stuff didn't burn.' Article content
Edmonton Journal
5 days ago
- Edmonton Journal
'Perfect storm': Jasper's deputy fire chief says 2024 wildfire was matter of time
Article content 'Especially with the pine beetles, when all of the trees were red, it was really obvious to just look out your window and see dead trees all through the valley. And you think, oh, we have a million dead Christmas trees standing in our forest.' Article content But, as much as someone can prepare for the thing, when the thing actually comes, it's a whole different level of hell. Article content Smith was born and raised in Jasper. His mother was born in Jasper. His grandparents were married in Jasper close to a century ago. And, throughout those generations, nothing came close to last year's wildfire. Article content 'Having a catastrophic event like this, it turned into a bigger event than we'd feared,' he said. 'You hope that all of your planning and resources will fall into place and you'll have a good chance to stop it. Of course, what we've seen in the last 15, 20 years, around the province and all over the world, for that matter, is where you get these situations where it goes beyond. It's perfect-storm conditions. It's weeks of hot, dry weather and crazy high winds and it turns into something much, much more.' Article content Article content Last year, when they found out on July 22 that the fire was bearing towards town, the fire department knew it had less than two days to prepare for whatever was going to be thrown its way. Firefighters from nearby towns and counties, Grande Cache, Hinton and Parkland County, arrived to help out. And, when it became clear that the town was going to take a direct hit from the fire, what amounted to an all-points bulletin was issued from the command centre. Any available firefighter would be welcome. Article content They worked on prepping the critical infrastructure; the hospital, RCMP station and utilities. All those scenarios they had worried about were playing out to the nth degree. And then the smoke plume flattened out, plunging afternoon into night. And then came the winds. Smith said his crew saw patio furniture strewn about Jasper's streets. Article content Article content And then came the embers, propelled by those winds. The crews got to the fires as quickly as they could, but all they could do was play catch-up. And what Smith remembers is just how quickly it was all over. Article content The return Article content The day Smith will never forget is when the gates were lifted and residents came back into town. The fire department awaited their arrival. Article content 'The event itself was very traumatic, but the emotions really played in afterwards,' he said. Article content 'The day that people got to come back to town was super dramatic, way more super emotional than just some people coming back to seeing that their house was OK. We didn't anticipate that. We were just happy, like, really happy. So, we decided to meet them as they opened the gates to let people into town. We really didn't anticipate the reaction of folks returning, because, you know, they were very emotional. Once they saw the fire department, they were losing it, big time. I don't think I've ever seen so many people crying, bawling.' Article content But Smith understands the July 22 commemoration will bring back raw emotions for his firefighters and their fellow Jasper residents. He said about a third of his crew lost their homes a year ago. The fire department moved to having four full-time staff, to allow volunteers some more time off to heal. While Smith didn't lose his home, his son, a railway engineer, had to move back in with mom and dad. They're also hosting a seasonal worker. The Smiths' once-empty nest is full again. He said for many residents, the anniversary will be a reminder that a year has passed, and they still don't have permanent homes to live in. It will remind them just how slow the rebuild is going. The municipality is expecting the recovery to be a decade-long process. Article content As well, the fire department makes sure to rotate staff when it comes to speaking at public events or to the media. If one person has to keep reliving the day the fire hit town, it's too much. Article content Article content What Smith is happy about is that the department hasn't lost any volunteers. He said the trends in volunteer departments is that they shed members after major, traumatic events. But the mental well-being of the team is always on his mind. Article content 'It's tricky with mental health,' he said. 'Every single person's going to react differently. They're going to have different experiences, different expectations. Some of them were really good in the beginning and then, later on, realized maybe they weren't as good as they thought they were. Some of them were quite shocked the ovewhelming factors of everything that happened. We have had a lot of support. They started to bring in teams early, from Alberta Mental Health Services and we had some private guys coming in as well. We've really followed that up as a department and as a municipality and we've got a program in place for folks.'
