25,000 evacuated from tourist town of Jasper

Buildings in the Canadian tourist town of Jasper have been burning after wildfires forced 25,000 people to evacuate the area earlier this week, officials said.

The blaze has spread through Jasper National Park, causing “significant loss” within the local town, according to park officials on X, formerly Twitter.

Hundreds of wildfires have sparked in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia (BC).

The region has been hit by more than 58,000 lightning strikes within the last week, sparking new blazes after a three-week heat wave, according to BC Wildfire Service.

Around 1,900 Alberta firefighters have been deployed, assisted by personnel from Alaska and Australia, and are working to save local infrastructure.

That includes the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a Canadian government-owned pipeline that runs through Jasper National Park. As of Wednesday it was still operating, with sprinklers being used to protect it.

There have been more than 400 fires recorded in British Columbia and 176 in the neighbouring province of Alberta.

Environment Canada said there might soon be a reprieve from the hot and dry weather, which allowed the fire to grow, as 1cm to 2cm (0.4in to 0.8in) of rain is expected on Thursday.

The fire is so powerful that some weather experts say it is creating its own weather system and generating thunder and lightning, which can sometimes happen with intense blazes.

Fires were first reported in Jasper last week. The town’s mayor, Richard Ireland, told CBC that the town was facing its “worst nightmare”.

“I write to you today with profound sorrow as we begin to come to terms with the devastating impact of last night’s wildfire that has ravaged our beloved community,” Mr Ireland wrote on Facebook on Thursday morning.

“The destruction and loss that many of you are facing and feeling is beyond description and comprehension; my deepest sympathies go out to each of you.”

Mr Ireland noted first responders were still working to protect the town from further destruction.

The wildfire reached the grounds of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge on Wednesday night, Anastasia Martin-Stilwell, a spokesperson for the historic resort said.

While all guest were safely evacuated, the extent of the damage, if any, remains unclear.

“We are devastated by the situation,” Ms Martin-Stilwell said. “The dedication of our first responders and those coming to our aid cannot fully be expressed.”

Eleonor Dumlao told the Edmonton Journal she was filled with panic when her family received the evacuation order. They left Jasper on Monday night and headed to an evacuation centre in Edmonton.

“It was so very terrible experience for us, and I was so panicking that time. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to get first,” she told the newspaper.

Jasper National Park said on X that “air quality had deteriorated” in the area. The park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies.

After evacuations were issued, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told residents to “leave safely” on Wednesday. In a post on Facebook, she said she was in “constant contact” with the authorities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government has approved a request for federal assistance for Alberta.

“We’re deploying @CanadianForces resources, evacuations support, and more emergency wildfire resources to the province immediately — and we’re coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance,” Mr Trudeau said on X.

Daniel Turner also recounted how he evacuated the wildfires to the Edmonton Journal, saying he followed evacuation orders with three of his friends but hit bumper-to-bumper traffic fleeing Jasper and turned around.

The group slept in a Canadian Tire parking lot.

“You could see it deteriorating, like ash falling,” he said of the wildfire smoke.

Meanwhile, others like Jim Campbell and Shawn Cornett were asleep in their tent at a campsite in Jasper’s backcountry when the evacuation order was issued, they told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

As word about the evacuation spread they packed up their belongings and hit the road with another 20 people who were leaving the site.

“We were the last ones out,” Mr Campbell said. “Because we were the last ones to know.”

Earlier in the week, several US states including California and Utah were hit by wildfires.

More than 30 million people in the US have been affected by heat warnings since early July, according to the National Weather Service. The warnings are in place in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.