Firefighters in Canada battle to save Jasper's buildings, infrastructure as wildfire engulfs town

Structural firefighters are still in town trying to protect the town about 365 kilometres west of Edmonton. They are trying to protect buildings and critical infrastructure, including the wastewater treatment plant and Trans Mountain Pipeline — among others.

They're probably going to have to prioritize the infrastructure, meaning the town's residence and commercial buildings will be given up. Super sad.

It sounds like they're sending everybody. What will happen when we have two towns on fire? Will we eventually have to triage and decide which town's infrastructure to save and which town will just burn out?

Nevertheless super glad everyone including park visitors have been evacuated

This is heartbreaking. Jasper is one of Alberta's and really Canada's greatest treasures. Unlike Banff, which is absolutely polluted with tourists all summer, Jasper is much slower paced and far less commercialized but still stunningly beautiful parkland. We love going there because its small enough to have a friendly small town feel while still providing world class camping, sightseeing, hiking, wildlife viewing, and some classy spas and hotels if you desire that. Its only got 5000 residents so ANY loss is going to affect the whole town and it looks like some streets are already only rows of smoking, empty basements. It's going to be a huge loss.

Check out this tiktok of one street in the middle of town: https://www.tiktok.com/@bestedmontonmall/video/7395609597618277638

I was there for the first time last September. A lovely place I wish I had longer time to spend with. I was hoping to go back next year to take advantage of solar maximum and get some hiking in.

I came across a couple of TikToks from people evacuated, one by helicopter. The fact that most of the responders are being pulled out doesn't bode well. It's utterly tragic.

This is so sad. Someone close to me works out west all summer and was reporting frequent rainy days all spring and into early summer. First "normal" feeling season in years. It gave me some hope that this year mightn't be as bad for wildfires.

Then the recent heatwave hit, and suddenly fires popping up all over :(