EDMONTON — Thousands of wildfire evacuees forced from Jasper National Park into British Columbia along smoke-choked mountain roads Monday were directed Tuesday to make a wide U-turn and head home if they needed a place to stay.
Alberta fire officials said B.C. has its hands full with its own wildfires and evacuations.
“The issue is the severity of wildfire activity and evacuations in B.C. proper," Stephen Lacroix, managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, told reporters during a video conference.
"They had no capacity to house Albertans."
Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said reception centres were being set up in Grande Prairie to the north and Calgary to the south.
Ellis told evacuees to take massive detours, either through Prince George, B.C., proceeding north and east to Grande Prairie, or south to Kamloops before going east to Calgary.
Everyone in Jasper National Park — tourists, hikers, campers, boaters — along with 4,700 residents of the Jasper townsite were ordered out late Monday night as wildfires pinched off escape routes to the east and south.
The result was a long, slow-moving line of cars and trucks heading west through the mountains to B.C. in darkness, swirling smoke, soot and ash.
Many evacuees sought refuge for the night in Valemount, B.C., a town of 1,000 about 120 kilometres west of Jasper.
"The community's pretty full," said town administrator Anne Yanciw in an interview.
"Every parking lot, boulevard, side of the road, field … anything that looks like it could fit a vehicle is full."
Some evacuees spent the night on the floor of the local arena. Others bunked down at the legion. A local church was serving a pancake breakfast while drinks, snacks, information and a respite were on offer at Valemount's community hall and visitors' centre.
"It's all hands on deck," Yanciw said.
Katie Ellsworth, an incident commander with Parks Canada, told a media briefing Tuesday evening that an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people, including residents and visitors, were evacuated from Jasper.
"The evacuation of the townsite is complete, and the evacuation of hikers in the backcountry is ongoing," she said.
No critical infrastructure had been damaged so far in Jasper National Park, she added.
The province has been baking and sweltering for days in 30 C-plus temperatures.
About 180 wildfires were burning across Alberta as of late Tuesday, 63 of which were out of control.
“A lot of the fires that we’re fighting right now were (caused by) lightning, and there’s expected to be more coming in the near future,” Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen said.
There was a provincewide fire ban in the forest protection area.
The province estimated 17,500 Albertans were out of their homes from the Jasper fire as well as those threatening remote northern communities.
On Monday night, photos and video shared on social media illuminated a midnight cavalcade of bumper-to-bumper cars and trucks, headlights on, red tail lights glowing, cars inching, stopping, starting, crawling through swirling tendrils of acrid smoke toward B.C.
The Jasper townsite and the park's main east-west artery, Highway 16, were caught in a fiery pincer.
Fire threatening from the northeast cut off highway access east to Edmonton. Ellsworth said this fire was between the town's transfer station and airstrip, on both sides of the highway. It was estimated to be about 2.7 square kilometres in size.
Another fire roaring up from the south — at an estimated 67 square kilometres — forced the closure of the north-south Icefields Parkway.
That left one route open — west to B.C.
Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, home to campgrounds, scenic rivers and lakes, and extensive trail networks.
In Hinton, close to the east boundary of the park, Mayor Nicholas Nissen reported only a trickle of evacuees into the community.
Nissen said the sky was blue with less smoke than Monday.
“You would almost have no indication that there’s a disaster in the community next door, just with the way Hinton is right now,” Nissen said in an interview.
He said Hinton has sent equipment and crews to help battle the fires.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2024.
— with files from Bob Weber in Edmonton and Jeremy Simes in Regina
Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press
