Jasper on Fire: Five Days of Hell in a Rocky Mountain Paradise (Sutherland Quarterly)

On a brilliant sunny day at the height of the season, July 2024, residents and visitors to the picturesque tourist town of Jasper, Alberta, learned that fast-moving forest fires were burning both south and north of town. That left only one westward road out of harm’s way.
Over three frantic days, 5,000 residents and 20,000 tourists were evacuated from Jasper as firefighters used helicopters to battle flames reaching 100-feet high and leaping from tree top to tree top behind 100-kilometre-per-hour winds. The 25,000-hectare fire was so intense it likely created its own weather system and lightning. Despite heroic efforts, a third of the town was lost.

In this gripping narrative, Calgary Herald reporter Matthew Scace talks to the emergency managers who organized the evacuation, the woman who was preparing to go into labour when the fires started, the firefighters who fought through the night to save what they could of the town, and the recovery team leaders travelling the long, painful road to recovery.

Jasper on Fire also takes a hard look at why the blaze happened and what can be done to prevent future disasters in our increasingly volatile climate.