Residents of Jasper, Alta., will learn Monday when they can return home, according to Mayor Richard Ireland.
A monster wildfire that forced thousands to evacuate Jasper National Park ripped through the historic townsite nearly three weeks ago, incinerating about one-third of its homes and businesses.
On Monday, members of the unified command, made up of Parks Canada and Municipality of Jasper representatives, will release the date of re-entry and details about how it will work, Ireland announced during a virtual news conference Saturday.
“Returning residents safely to their homes has been — and continues to be — an overriding goal of the incident management team,” he said.
The “precise terms” for re-entry are still being tweaked, he added.
In the days after the fire hit Jasper, some government officials speculated that evacuees could be displaced for several weeks.
Required re-entry criteria were eventually developed, listing things that had to be in place before evacuees could return, such as improved air quality and restored critical services.
Officials working in the town and responding to the wildfire have provided progress updates, but until Saturday, there had been no hint about when re-entry could occur.
“[Residents and local business owners] have clung to the prospect of re-entry as some reward — not, of course, for their immeasurable suffering, but for their enduring patience and understanding,” Ireland said.
“Monday, they will know.”
Re-entry criteria “continue to be achieved at an accelerating pace,” Ireland said, adding he hopes news of the impending information will help comfort evacuees.
The Jasper-Alberta-Canada intergovernmental redevelopment committee, which will have representatives from all levels of government, was established to oversee, coordinate and advise elected officials to address needs in Jasper as the community recovers, the municipality said in a Facebook post Friday.
The committee will first focus on transitional and interim housing needs, according to a provincial government news release.
The Jasper Wildfire Complex, a group of fires burning in the national park, is still out of control. The complex is among 116 wildfires burning throughout the province as of 1 p.m. MT Saturday, according to the Alberta Wildfire dashboard.
Cooler temperatures and rainfall helped firefighters make progress on the Jasper wildfire, said Jonathan Large, a Parks Canada incident commander, during Saturday’s virtual news conference.
The fire spans about 33,000 hectares, Large said. The north edge of the fire, which poses a risk to the town, is 80-per cent contained.
He acknowledged there is ample unburnt brush west and northwest of Jasper that could fuel flames toward the townsite, should the fire spread. But Parks Canada officials are confident the town and surrounding areas are well protected from the potential risk, he said.
“We’re getting off of the reactive measures and able to get into some more proactive measures and reinforce some of those lines as well,” Large said.
“A lot of those actions are going on simultaneous, now, with the suppression efforts that we’re doing. So, I feel the town’s in very good shape.”
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