‘Need to stay strong’: Jasper evacuees anxious as they await word on wildfire damage

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2024 (513 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY – Alice Varshavska didn’t expect this to happen again.

Two years ago, she fled war-torn Ukraine seeking a better life. She found it in Jasper, Alta.

But the 26-year-old restaurant server was forced to flee the picturesque Rocky Mountain tourist town as wildfires encroached on Monday night. On Thursday, she found herself registering at an evacuation centre in Calgary.

“I’m still trying to have a good mood. We flew from Ukraine and cried out all of our tears and collected all those things and left everything behind and now like it’s just happened again and you are like, ‘OK, I need to stay strong,'” Varshavska said.

“I need to keep going and figure things out. If God wants it like that, then maybe it makes us stronger.”

Varshavska, who said she may look for work in Calgary, said nobody initially suspected anything was wrong. Then she saw drivers lined up to buy gasoline.

“I come out of work and then I see the ashes falling down and like, ‘What is going on?’ And you look on the other side there is this huge smoke coming up.”

She said she packed quickly, bringing only documents, her phone and her most important belongings. It took two days to get to Calgary and the possibility of going back to Jasper is fading.

“I just got the video from my friends and it’s all burned … Even the houses made of stone all burned,” she said.

“We still had a hope, me and my friends, that maybe some of the things will still be there when we come back and it’s just hard to realize that all of your memories are just gone.”

Preliminary reports indicate a third and perhaps up to half of the structures in the Jasper townsite have been destroyed, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Thursday.

About 25,000 people, including about 5,000 Jasper residents, were forced to flee west at a moment’s notice late Monday night as twin wildfires from the south and north roared through, cutting off access to the east and south.

Rhett Fleming has worked at the golf course at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge for the past five years. He said he was waiting for an update from resort management about the damage.

Fleming said the smoke came out of nowhere, followed by a strong wind that blew it through town.

“It was scary and I never experienced anything like that and wouldn’t wish that upon anybody,” Fleming said as he was entering the Calgary evacuation centre.

“A lot of people I know who have been in that community 40, 50, 60 years … their lives are there. Their houses are gone. You can rebuild houses, you can rebuild businesses but it’s people’s lives.”

Donny Woodcox described getting a late-night call at the Maligne Lake work camp he’s been staying at for the past three years.

“It’s a shock. It still hasn’t kicked in, I don’t think,” he said.

Woodcox said he and other workers carpooled to Calgary and he is praying the fire doesn’t spread any further.

“I’m going to stay for a week and see how it goes. Hopefully the fire goes out and we see where we go from there.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2024.