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Jasper Wildfires Update · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Well, we're keeping in our eyes right now looking west at Jasper as we
• 0:06
  know that these wildfires are just causing just chaos. Quite frankly. Thousands of
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  evacuees have been forced from Jasper National Park, joining us to discuss as reporter
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  and editor with the Canadian Press David Bulls, who is covering from Edmonton.
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  Good morning, David, How are you? Good morning John? Thanks for
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  having me, sir, thank you so much for joining us. So you
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  know what, look we're here in Windsor, Ontario. Let's just have you
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  set the table. What's going on right now in Jasper? When did these
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  things flare up? How significant is this? So it all kicked off Monday
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  night into Tuesday morning when there was a fire report at in the national park,
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  one in the south, one in the north, and then I'd say
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  round for our time, mounded. Everything can sort of really slurred up around
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  ten thirty when we saw the alert from Alberta emergency alert that told people get
• 1:00
  out and get out now. And the initial alert from Alberta Mergencialert said people
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  had, you know, limited time because the fire was due to reach the
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  Jasper town site in about five hours. That was later amended to say no,
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  you have five hours to get out. So for context, Jasper's a
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  very you know, mountainous town, embedded at the embedded in the Rockies,
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  very picturesque, very beautiful, and it's very popular tourists really from all across
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  the country in the world. So cars were just packing the highway trying to
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  get out because the only way they could go was west. Is the Alberta
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  emergencialer told people all you can't come east. They'd blocked the highways off towards
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  Edmonton, which would have been the next major city after So I was speaking
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  with one lady who informed me in the in the fervor to get out,
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  that her and her husband and her family were in their car and for them
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  to go about seven kilometers it took them about three and a half three hours
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  forty five minutes. So it was quite the it was quite the rush and
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  quite the intensity just to get out of just get out of Jasper on that
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  night. And I imagine that it must have been you know, compounded with
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  fear considering the fact that if you are, you know, bumper to bumper
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  and it's taking so long to travel, there must have been smoke that was
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  billowing around too. Oh for sure. I was in that conversation with the
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  one lady's sheet informed me that the ash, the thickness of smoke was intense,
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  and it was. It was everywhere. I mean, I live at
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  Edmonton. It's a good four hour drive, four hour drive east of Jasper,
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  and you could just feel it in the air. Everything it's the smoke
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  is thick, it's dense, and if that's four hours away, I can
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  only imagine what it would have been like right at the scene of it all.
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  So where are people heading right now? Because I'm seeing that. British
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  Columbia was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys, we've got
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  our own wildfires that we're dealing with here. Don't come here right now.
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  So initially when it all broke out, the directive was go to Veil Mount.
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  It's a town sort of like sort of like Jazz for much smaller though
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  only about five hundred people, just over the BC Alberta border in BC.
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  But like you said, BC's dealing with its own wildfire season right now,
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  and then an equally intense one as well. So the directive now has been
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  go to either Grand Prairie or Calgary. And for people who may not be
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  aware, yeah, means you have to. It's about a thirteen. If
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  you have to loop around, you have to go from Jasper down south to
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  either Handloops or Kelowna and then loop back, you know, loop back west
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  to Calgary. And then there's another I know there's another routes up to Grand
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  Prairie that is quite time consuming as well. So I know they're dispatching buses
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  from Prince George to Edmonton, which is another route as well, but it's
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  quite it's quite the journey to go from you know that far north in b
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  C to you know, central Alberta like Edmonson, and then you know norld
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  to Alberta and Grand Prairie's case, and then it's Calgary as well. I
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  know one lady I was speaking when she said she was bound for cam Loops,
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  but I don't know if I don't know if she made it, but
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  it was her intention to stay there for a bit. So that's that's the
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  situation right now. Do we know what started these wildfires? Was was it
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  just you know, like a climate weather or was it The initial reports we
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  have indicates lightning, but that's that that would not surprise me as it it
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  is quite hot and dry right now, and when it is, and when
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  it is that hot and dry for long as as you may know, sir,
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  it doesn't take long for you know, something to spark a fire like
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  that and for it to just go off. It's usually summers and Alberta tended
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  to be quite warm, and it's been thirty thirty five here consistently for the
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  past three weeks. And what happens with communities that are you know, more
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  in the north and more isolated when something like this occurs, I have to
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  imagine that, you know, it gets pretty harrowing. I remember, you
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  know, a number of years ago there were the Fort McMurray wildfire, and
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  I heard some stories about how that affected communities even as far north as for
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  Chippelan, Yes, well fortunate, I was currently going through its own welfare.
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  There's a lot of welfare surrounding that community. And it's you know,
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  a pretty far north uh community, pretty far north coast to the Northwest Territory,
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  but border usually from what I find, some of those some of those
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  communities needs you know, a lot of extra assistance. So it's a lot
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  of cities like Edmonton and like Calgary, if they have the capacity, and
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  it certainly is then being you know, two of the largest cities in Canada,
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  it gives them at least places to go. But you know, for
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  places that rule and that remote, it may be tough taxes. So it's
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  certainly with every wildfire season they're we're certainly finding more ways. There's certainly seeing
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  more ways for people to you know, have you know, more shelter spas
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  offered. It certainly shows the generosity of albert Is a Canadians at that time.
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  We're learning as well about the work it takes to combat these fires and
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  just how intense and devastating they can be to communities and families as well.
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  Is wildfire season changing? Is it becoming more intense, more frequent fires?
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  Like just how does how how are things stacking up now versus you know,
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  like ten years ago, twenty years ago. Yeah, I can. I
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  grew up in Calgary for context, and I can remember as a kid,
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  you didn't really used to get I mean, they were certainly there, but
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  I don't remember the skies that were being completely smoky all the time. But
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  I can honestly say since I moved, as I moved back to Alberta in
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  twenty nineteen. Not only have they become more frequent, but you're seeing them
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  more intense, and it's you know, there are a few periods last year
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  when I mean the CFL games were so in the air was so thick with
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  smoke that there are questions about whether the game should go ahead. And it
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  certainly seems like we're not only getting more intense wildfire seasons, or we're getting
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  them with greater frequency. And it's it's certainly a m posed a challenge for
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  the folks of the scena of it all, but it's a certainly challenge for
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  the rest of you know, the obvious and the country who is going to
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  have to find more ways to combat them and learn how to deal with these
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  going forward. Ultimately, you know, collectively, the federal government's going to
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  take a bunch of the tax money that we all spend and if it needs
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  to be used for rebuilding purposes. I mean, these things do impact all
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  of us. It's not just isolated geographically. And heck, even here in
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  Windsor, I mean last year we were dealing with that and even this year
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  it's starting a little bit. We get the smoke from these wildfires, and
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  I don't remember that ever occurring in the past. I'm thirty five years old,
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  and I remember last year there were literal days we'd walk outside here in
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  Windsor just across from Detroit, Michigan, and like the sky would be cloudy,
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  and it wasn't because there were any clouds. It would just be an
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  overcast, gray day and it was just the smoke. And it's that's very
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  much my recollection as well. I can remember growing up, like I said,
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  in Calgary, and you know, most summers you could usually see like
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  the mountains from where my house was in South Calgary, clear sunny days.
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  But I can also you know, last year when I got family in southern
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  Ontario, came back from seeing them, and I touched down in Edmonton.
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  Then the very next morning, the first thing can smell in my apartment,
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  no windows open, with smoke. And there are days I live in downtown
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  Edmonton, there are days like I can't see four blocks in front of me
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  with a smoke that thick. So it certainly seems like we're living in a
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  very much so I say so, we're living in a very ever changing wildfire
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  season, and we're living in a very much changing season in the sense that
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  it's growing more intense and how we respond to what is seems to be determining
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  what we'll get more in the future of it. What are the ways I
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  mean? And I'll let you go after this one. I don't mean to
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  take up too much of your time, but like other than I guess,
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  you know, sending out a firetruck to spray a bunch of water, Like,
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  how do you how what have you heard like that they do to deal
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  with these situations or is it really sort of just try and create a path
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  for the fire to keep going through that's tried to avoid, you know,
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  communities. I somewhat I see they do, and reports are I've never been
• 9:03
  out there myself, but I have sort of you know how there's been helicopter
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  crews and air crews take on these fires. I know there's fire containments units
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  set up so that they can kind of box out the blaze or try and
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  as I mentioned, contain it. And I know there's a burnie in to
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  go out and try to you know, basically get burrow all the extra debris
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  so that the fire doesn't have any extra fuel to take up. But when
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  the fires are this intense, and I foustic check they were well over one
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  hundred and fifty round one hundred and fifty fire story burning in Alberta. I
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  would imagine it would be tougher for crews to do this, but I know
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  there's a bunch of tactics true crews take, from aerial work to suppression work
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  on the ground to try and contain the damage that these blazes are causing to
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  the local ecosystems and communities. You know, it's just wild stuff here.
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  What's going on with these evacuation orders and highway closures and these wild fires.
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  David, I really appreciate your time breaking it down for us, and I
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  hope that things remain as good as possible for where you are there in Edmonton.
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  I know that you know it's still a distance away, but you know,
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  if you're seeing the smoke, it's impacting everyone. Excellent, John,
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  appreciate your time. Thank you for having me on. Thank you so much.
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  David Bowles is a reporter and editor with the Canadian Press. He's covering
• 10:18
  these wildfires from Edmonton