1st bus tour for evacuees of Jasper goes ahead as Trudeau visits fire command centre
'Incredible' progress made on townsite infrastructure: Premier Danielle Smith
The first bus tours into a partially-burned Jasper went ahead Monday morning, as officials from multiple levels of government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attended briefings in nearby Hinton, Alta.
According to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, buses left from Hinton and Edmonton Monday, carrying 62 passengers. Another bus, from Valemount, B.C., will leave on Wednesday.
A total of 563 people have registered. Media are not permitted on the tours.
Priority is being given to those whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the wildfire that ripped through the town more than a week ago. Residents are not allowed to leave the bus during the tour for safety reasons.
Trudeau attended a technical presentation with Smith and Mike Ellis, Alberta's minister of public safety and emergency services, Monday morning.
"I think all of us took away how important it was to have unified command — having the municipal government as well as our government, as well as the federal parks — all working together as we have gone through the last number of days," Smith told reporters Monday afternoon.
"When I spoke with the prime minister, I said it would be my hope that that would continue through reconstruction."
Posting on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Trudeau noted that he had been briefed by the incident response team in Hinton.
"This wildfire season has devastated communities, and firefighting efforts are still ongoing. We're making sure Alberta has everything they need to respond to these fires and help rebuild Jasper," Trudeau wrote.
There has been "incredible" progress made in the townsite when it comes to restoring power and critical services, Smith said, but there is no firm re-entry date right now.
Ellis said more information on a 24-year-old Calgary man, who died after being injured by a falling tree while fighting a wildfire northeast of Jasper, will be forthcoming.
According to the Jasper Wildfire Complex Unified Command, which is comprised of members of both Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper, it happened around 2 p.m. MT Saturday.
Ellis reiterated his condolences to the man's family and colleagues.
Despite the tragedy and destruction, Smith told reporters she was in awe of the spirit of the evacuees she's spoken with.
"It's remarkable. You talk to structural firefighters who knew that they'd lost their own home and continued fighting because they knew that they had to draw a line to be able to protect both the town and the critical infrastructure," she said.
"Now [people] are just hunkering down and saying, 'What do we do to get our town back to normal?'"
Telephone town hall
Alberta will hold a town hall meeting Tuesday evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m., for those evacuated from wildfires including Jasper.
People can participate online or by phone.
Online access is available at alberta.ca/emergencies. Evacuees can also phone in at 1-833-380-0691.
Current fire situation
There are 858 people currently fighting the fire, according to Dean MacDonald, one of the incident commanders with Parks Canada.
Despite the cool weather in the area, MacDonald said it doesn't take much for fire behaviour to pick up again, as most of the fuel for the fire is still dry.
"Right now, we're taking advantage of the fact that we're going to try to get as many people on the ground as we can, in places we could not get them," he told reporters Monday.
MacDonald said it's good to have political leaders come down and see the incident command centre and said he knows the team has their full support.
Trudeau was not touring Jasper on Monday, in part because he wanted to give residents some space, MacDonald said, as they were seeing the destruction for the first time. Many of them lost their homes in the fire.
As for those whose homes are still standing, they will need to get insurance adjusters onto their property to assess the livability of their homes, according to Christine Nadon, incident commander for the Municipality of Jasper.
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