2024 Losses: One Third of the Jasper Townsite

    What was the biggest news event for you in 2024?  After reviewing the year, I decided for us it was the furious forest fire that swept through Jasper National Park, destroying one-third of the Jasper townsite.  Although Jasper is in Alberta, not BC, it’s fire still had a huge impact on the Robson valley.  Jasper is the closest town to the Village of McBride, only 100 miles away.  That may sound strange to people living in populated places, but while there are a couple sparsely located hamlets and Valemount  (another village 50 miles away) in between, Jasper is our closest “town”.  We have been there many times, and know people there.

    Not only is it our closest town, Jasper National Park is also one of Canada’s premier parks (or was?),  and it is an internationally known tourist destination.  Many of those tourists, when leaving or going to Jasper, pass through McBride, spending money on accommodations, fuel, groceries, and souvenirs.  The Jasper fire, which stopped their tourism, certainly had a huge negative effect on McBride’s economy.

    Many of the residents of Jasper who had to evacuate, ended up in McBride.  Our friends John and Di, who live in Jasper, spent weeks in McBride, not knowing if their townhouse survived the holocaust.  Fortunately it did, and they are back living in their crippled town.  

    Dr. Janet, our vet, who lives in Jasper, had her veterinary clinic destroyed in the fire, and as a result, she ended up having to close down the satellite clinic she ran in Valemount, that we always used.

    McBride, for the second year in a row, also had another forest fire, just seven miles east of the village, but fortunately it burned only trees, no homes or buildings.  Our summers have become scary, and what happened in Jasper have made them even scarier.

    A couple of weeks ago, my wife took the train to visit John and Di in Jasper.  Below is a photo she took from the train as it arrived in Jasper.  You can see the vehicles of the many workmen who are clearing and starting to rebuild Jasper.  The bare hills show just how the devastatingly powerful the Jasper fire was.

 

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