A wildfire that has destroyed hundreds of structures in the town of Jasper is the largest blaze recorded in Jasper National Park in a century and could still be burning months from now, a Parks Canada official said Saturday, July 27.
"We're going to be working on this wildfire, we expect, over the next three months at least," Landon Shepherd, a deputy incident commander, said at a news conference in the nearby community of Hinton. "What the last five years has taught us is that the fire season in Jasper tends to last well into the fall." The region received about 1.2 centimeters (close to a half inch) of rain over about a day and a half but there were still active hot spots near the community.
More than 20,000 people in and around the town nestled in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta province were ordered to evacuate late Monday due to fast-moving wildfires. Parks Canada has said 358 of the town's 1,113 structures were destroyed. In an online update, Parks Canada said fire suppression has been progressing well in the town.
The federal agency said power is being restored to parts of the downtown core and to critical infrastructure, which it said would help to speed up further damage assessment and recovery.
Provincial wildfire officials said an estimated 17,100 Albertans are evacuated due to wildfires as of Saturday. The province said there were 157 wildfires burning across Alberta, with 44 classified as out of control, 45 being held, and 68 under control. Evacuation orders remain in effect for three communities of the Little Red River Cree Nation as well as Chipewyan Lake.
Thousands of firefighters battling a wildfire in Northern California received some help from the weather Saturday hours after it exploded in size, scorching an area greater than the size of Los Angeles. The blaze was one of several tearing through the western United States and Canada, fueled by wind and heat.
Cooler temperatures and an increase in humidity could help slow the Park Fire, the largest this year in California. Its intensity and dramatic spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the monstrous Camp Fire , which burned out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.
Paradise again was near the danger zone. The entire town was under an evacuation warning, one of several communities in Butte County. Evacuation orders were also issued in Plumas, Tehama and Shasta counties. An evacuation warning calls for people to prepare to evacuate and await instructions, while an evacuation order means to leave immediately.
Temperatures are expected to be cooler than average through the middle of next week, but "that doesn't mean that fires that are existing will go away," said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
The Park Fire has scorched 547 square miles (1,416 square kilometers) as of Saturday, with no containment, and was moving to the north and east. It has destroyed 134 structures since igniting Wednesday when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, was arrested Thursday at his home in Chico and was being held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, officials said.
Nearly 2,500 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by 16 helicopters and numerous air tankers. President Joe Biden was briefed on the Park Fire and directed his team to do everything possible to support suppression efforts, according to the White House.
In Southern California, a blaze in the Sequoia National Forest swept through the community of Havilah after burning more than 48 square miles (124 square kilometers) in less than three days. The town of 250 people had been under an evacuation order
Elsewhere, crews were making progress on another complex of fires in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman said. Traffic was backed up for miles near the border along the main highway linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas, as crews continued to battle a fire that started Friday when a truck crashed.
Two fires in eastern Oregon, the Durkee and Cow Valley blazes, burned about 660 square miles (1,709 square kilometers). Gov. Tina Kotek expressed condolences Friday to the family of a pilot of a single-engine air tanker that went down in forested terrain while fighting a separate fire near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest.
In Idaho, homes, outbuildings and a commercial building were among structures lost in several communities including Juliaetta, which was evacuated Thursday. Officials said Saturday that they were continuing to assess the damage from a grouping of blazes referred to as the Gwen fire, which was estimated at 41 square miles (106 square kilometers) in size with no containment.