Latest news with #MathewConte
CBC
3 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Jasper bolsters fire resiliency standards after devastating 2024 wildfire
The Municipality of Jasper and Parks Canada are taking firmer measures to protect the park from wildfires, after a massive wildfire destroyed 30 per cent of the townsite in July 2024. The measures will ensure that homes are built with non-combustible roofs and siding instead of highly flammable material like cedar shingles, which had been a popular choice for the mountain town. The municipality adopted new urban design standards under its land use and planning department based on guidelines under the national FireSmart program. The program, developed in the early 2000s, outlines how people can make their properties more resilient to fire, such as removing debris and dry vegetation and building with non-flammable materials. Mathew Conte, Jasper's fire chief, said cedar shingles, pine needles and pine cones are prime fuel for ember showers that dropped hot embers and bits of fire over Jasper last summer. "Where we found we were severely impacted by that, were a lot of the homes that still had cedar shake roofs," Conte said during a news availability on Monday. "Crews spent most of their evening actioning those fires all night long," Conte recounted. "Unfortunately, by the time they put out one and moved on to the next one, that ember shower just reignited the structure in behind us." Conte said the fire also latched on to wooden decks and juniper bushes at properties that didn't implement FireSmart guidelines. The municipality and Parks Canada are encouraging people who still have cedar roofs to replace them with non-combustible materials, like tin and asphalt. Conte said the fire department has hired a captain of prevention to help educate residents about FireSmart guidelines, a program that's been around since the early 2000s. With the help of the new captain, the fire department has done 30 advanced home assessments in the past two months, he noted. "I think they're taking it a lot more seriously," Conte said. "We have a lot of residents that have actually reached out to us." Jasper has also purchased residential sprinkler kits, which people can buy at cost from the fire department. Zone of protection Parks Canada has expanded its risk reduction program that started more than two decades ago, said David Argument, the resource conservation manager for Jasper National Park. Crews cut down highly flammable evergreens like the lodgepole pine in sections of forest around the townsite to make it harder for fire to spread through high tree canopy, he said. So far, they've carved out 900 hectares of land to the north and west of the townsite. Thinning the forest makes it harder for fire to spread through a high canopy of trees, he said. On Pyramid Bench, a hill north of the townsite, Argument showed media a new 60-hectare block of land they cleared over the winter, "We're trying to produce a zone of fire protection or, or vegetation treatment all the way around the perimeter of the community." You can walk from the furthest southern end of town at Stone Mountain for about 2.5 km before you get to the end of the zone, Argument said. "We're knitting together a long-term plan that we believe will be able to maintain the long term," Argument said. "We can't just cut it and walk away. It has to be something we can maintain long term." It costs $15,000 a hectare to cut down and remove the wood. "So it is costly work to get this wood off the landscape," Argument said. Conte said last summer's hot and dry conditions were unprecedented, and they were taken by surprise how quickly the fire hit the town — 46 hours from the time the fire ignited in the south valley. "From the time that fire was about five kilometres out, it took about 30 minutes to reach the town. So very little time." "We've always planned and prepared for a forest fire. And I think any community that lives in a forested area, it's always a matter of when it'll happen, not if," Conte said.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
‘Fragile': An emotional day for Jasper residents one year after devastating wildfire
Jasper fire Chief Mathew Conte addresses the media in one of the most heavily impacted neighbourhoods, roughly one year after the wildfire in Jasper, Alta., on Monday, July 21, 2025. Conte says 2024 was an unprecedented fire season but his team is addressing preparedness, including residential sprinkler systems and fire smarting, to prevent further losses. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken
CTV News
22-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Solemn events planned to mark one year since 25,000 fled Jasper wildfire
Jasper Fire Chief Mathew Conte addresses the media in one of the most heavily impacted neighbourhoods, roughly one year after the wildfire in Jasper, Alta., on Monday, July 21, 2025. Conte says 2024 was an unprecedented fire season but his team is addressing preparedness, including residential sprinkler systems and fire smarting, to prevent further losses. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken JASPER, ALTA. — Today marks one year since roughly 25,000 tourists and residents of Jasper, Alta., were forced to flee on a single highway, after several runaway fires were discovered in Jasper National Park. There's expected to be solemn reflection in the beloved mountain town, as events are held to remember the evacuation and the flames that incinerated neighbourhoods two days later. A third of the town's structures were destroyed despite firefighters' best efforts. It's estimated about 2,000 people were displaced by the fire. A ceremony is scheduled with Mayor Richard Ireland and federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski. Talking circles, group bike rides and other events are set throughout the week. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025. Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press
Hamilton Spectator
10-05-2025
- Climate
- Hamilton Spectator
Jasper fire chief recounts wildfire, how his crew helped save most of the town
JASPER – When Mathew Conte moved to Jasper to become its fire chief in 2021, he was well aware of the wildfire risk that the town faced. That is a risk shared by every forested community in Canada. 'That risk and the hazard is always there,' Conte said. 'It's not really a matter of if it will happen but when it will happen because everybody that lives in the forest communities knows that there's always going to be that potential that a fire will start and threaten the community.' Jasper National Park already had its share of blazes, including the 2025 Excelsior wildfire and the 2022 Chetamon wildfire, before facing its worst one in a century last summer, which burned 32,722 hectares and destroyed 30 per cent of the townsite. Conte, who also serves as director of emergency management for the Municipality of Jasper, noted that while any community within a coniferous forest was at risk, he acknowledged that trees killed by mountain pine beetle may have made Jasper more prone to wildfire. 'I'm by no means a forest management expert, but anytime that you have dead trees over live trees, it'd definitely increase your risk,' he said. In the weeks prior to the Jasper wildfire, the area was facing severe dry conditions with no precipitation. Local officials knew this would elevate the risk, and Parks Canada was already dealing with the Utopia fire in the Miette area along with a few other small blazes elsewhere. On July 22, more fires broke out near the townsite and threatened to engulf the community. One was near the Jasper Transfer Station, which Conte and his department assisted Parks Canada with, followed by multiple fires south of town caused by lightning strikes. After a helicopter reconned the south valley, the fire was projected to have grown about 100 hectares within the first hour. This drastic rate of growth played a decisive role in the decision to evacuate Jasper. 'We wanted to make sure we had enough time to get everybody out of the community safely and not have a situation where the fire was affecting their ability to evacuate,' Conte said. 'It was an easy decision to make.' More than 20,000 people evacuated from the Jasper townsite and the rest of the park, leaving firefighters to defend empty homes and businesses. In the next two days, crews set up sprinklers to protect critical infrastructure from falling embers and worked to put a wet line and sprinkler protection around the townsite. More resources came to assist in preparing for the approaching fire, which arrived early in the evening on July 24. Although Conte had helped tackle larger grassland fires in southern Alberta and the Kenow fire in Waterton, this was by far the most significant fire that he had ever faced. Conte, who had been renting municipal housing, was among those who lost their home in the wildfire. Eight on-call casual firefighters also lost their homes, and four lost their regular jobs. 'To see in the destruction that was happening that night obviously took its toll on [community] members as well as the members of the fire department,' he said. 'Every member in this department knows most people in this town, so if they did not lose their homes, they knew people who did, whether it was friends, family, whoever. They were seeing some destruction that would affect their lives or their friends or family's lives.' Multiple roofs caught fire as the embers came down on the community, leading to multiple structures being set alight and quickly taxing crews as they worked to save as much of the town as possible. Crews were relieved around 3 a.m. after working 18 hours straight. Conte himself stayed in town for another six hours. At that point, there was no threat from the ember shower, but the replacement crews were still actioning multiple structure fires and making sure they could not spread. Ultimately, firefighters saved most of the town and all critical infrastructure. The one fatality was Alberta Wildfire member Morgan Kitchen. For over three weeks, as crews worked to contain the fire, the Municipality of Jasper and many others worked to prepare the town for re-entry. Residents finally returned on Aug. 16 with members of the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade welcoming them at the town's east entrance. 'It was definitely a good point to reach in the event, to know that a majority of the incident and that risk was mitigated, and we were at a point where we could start welcoming people back into the community,' Conte said. Nine months later, the fire chief acknowledged how the devastating event continues to affect his department. 'We all have a job to do, and unfortunately, emergency services don't stop working,' Conte said. 'We have to, obviously, provide that coverage 24/7, which is why we hired [eight] new terms.' Many members have taken time off for their mental health, and among other initiatives, the department is developing a mental health program that will require check-ins with a therapist after significant events. 'It's going to be, unfortunately, an ongoing thing now for quite some time,' Conte said. 'The impacts were pretty devastating to members of the departments as well as all community members.'
