Extract from ABC News
In short:
A wildfire has reached the Canadian town of Jasper, Alberta, where firefighters are battling to save the nearby Trans Mountain Pipeline.
The pipeline carries up to 890,000 barrels of oil per day from Edmonton to Vancouver through Jasper National Park.
What's next?
Evacuees are yet to return to the town as buildings on its southern edge have begun to burn.
A wildfire reached the Canadian town of Jasper, Alberta, on Wednesday evening local time as firefighters battled to save key facilities including the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
The pipeline, which can carry 890,000 barrels of oil per day from Edmonton to Vancouver, runs through a national park in the Canadian Rockies near the picturesque tourist town.
"Firefighters … are working to save as many structures as possible and protect critical infrastructure, including the wastewater treatment plant, communications facilities, the Trans Mountain Pipeline," Parks Canada said in a Facebook post.
Park officials say the fire entered the southern edge of the community, where it has begun burning buildings.
Parks Canada spokesman James Eastham told reporters outside Jasper that the town was filled with smoke and there had been "structural loss".
"At this point I can't confirm how many, locations or specific structures. The fire continues to burn," he said.
The pipeline operator did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, but said earlier it was safely operating the pipeline and had deployed sprinkler protection as a preventive measure.
Jasper National Park said it could not report on the extent of damage to specific locations or neighbourhoods, and that it would provide further updates on Thursday.
Fire encroaching from north and south
Jasper is being menaced by fires from the north and south.
The northern fire was spotted five kilometres from Jasper earlier in the day.
The southern fire had been reported eight kilometres away from the town, but Katie Ellsworth of Parks Canada said strong wind gusts swooping in behind it sent it racing.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong as fire perimeters changed minute to minute.
Ms Ellsworth said bucketing efforts by helicopter failed.
Crews using heavy equipment to build fireguards couldn't complete the work before having to pull back for safety.
Water bombers couldn't help due to dangerous flying conditions.
A last-ditch effort to use controlled burns to reroute the fire to natural barriers like Highway 16 and the Athabasca River failed due to "unfavourable conditions".
About 25,000 people were forced to evacuate the town on Monday night, including 15,000 visitors to Jasper National Park.
The park draws around two million tourists per year and is considered a national treasure.
The United Nations designated the parks that make up the Canadian Rockies, including Jasper, a World Heritage Site in 1984 for its striking mountain landscape.
In 1953, Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe visited to make the movie River of No Return.
More recently, the TV show The Bachelorette was filmed there.
Rangers in helicopters scoured the park earlier on Wednesday, looking for stragglers still there despite Monday night's mass evacuation.
Searchers looking through the back-country trails of Jasper National Park already had picked up 245 people and they continued the search on Wednesday in two helicopters, Ms Ellsworth said.
Later on Wednesday, officials said the evacuation of the town of Jasper was complete.
Jasper resident Leanne Maeva Joyeuse said she was relieved but exhausted after reaching the Grand Prairie evacuation centre following 20 hours on the road with her grandmother, parents and younger brother.
"We're just waiting to go back home and see how many days we're going to be stuck here."
Deteriorating air quality forced firefighters and others lacking breathing equipment to evacuate to the town of Hinton about 100 kilometres away, park authorities said on Facebook on Wednesday evening.
Ms Ellsworth said the decision to relocate all first responders to Hinton just outside the eastern edge of the park had "not been made lightly".
"Given the intensity of fire behaviour being observed the decision has been made to limit the number of responders exposed to this risk," she said.
Officials of Parks Canada earlier said they expected rain to arrive overnight.
Hundreds of fires ravage Canadian provinces
The fire marks one of hundreds ravaging the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.
Alberta has been baking under scorching temperatures that have already forced another 7,500 people out of remote communities.
Wildfires burning uncontrolled across the region include 433 in British Columbia and 176 in Alberta, more than a dozen in the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government was "mobilising every necessary resource available" to contain the fires.
"We're deploying Canadian Armed Forces resources, evacuations support, and more emergency wildfire resources to the province immediately — and we're coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance. Alberta, we're with you."
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she was "heartbroken" by the damage.
Air quality warnings issued across western US
In Canada, authorities issued an air quality advisory for Calgary due to the wildfire smoke.
A government agency called it high risk and said children and the elderly should avoid outdoor physical exertion.
Air quality warnings have also been sent across the western United States.
A record number of wildfires in 2023 forced more than 235,000 people across Canada to evacuate and sent thick smoke into parts of the US, leading to hazy skies and health advisories in multiple US cities.
Wildfire smoke can cause unhealthy air quality in areas many kilometres away from fires.
AP/Reuters
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