An “out of control” wildfire has devoured up to half of the main town in western Canada’s popular Jasper National Park, authorities said on Thursday, with 400 foreign firefighters called in to help battle the blaze.
While the fire has so far caused no casualties, as many as 25,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from the area before the conflagration suddenly grew in size, overtaking firefighters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called images of the damage “heartbreaking,” and said his government had asked more than 400 firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Africa to aid local authorities.
A video circulating on social media showed the city of Jasper’s streets covered in ash, with cars turned to charred carcasses and buildings reduced to rubble.
On Thursday, firefighters were still hard at work in the town, with much-anticipated rain having “no significant impact” on the blaze, according to Jasper National Park authorities.
In places, the flames reached a height of 120 meters (390 feet) and were moving at a speed of 15 meters per minute.
Jasper National Park, Canada’s largest, is known for its mountains, glaciers, lakes and waterfalls, and attracts 2.5 million visitors every year.
‘Devastation’
In recent days, numerous fires have been started by lightning in western Canada.
In Alberta province, more than 170 fires were active on Thursday, including more than a dozen in the Fort McMurray region, a hub of oil sands development.
British Columbia, Alberta’s neighboring province, was grappling with 400 active fires, more than half of which were burning out of control.
Firefighters were battling a wildfire in the US state of California on Thursday, with more than 3,500 people forced to flee their homes.
The Park Fire broke out on Wednesday evening, on the last day of a heat wave affecting the region.
More than 1,150 personnel were deployed to fight the blaze, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).
More than 3,500 people had evacuated the area, Governor Gavin Newsom said.
The town of Chico, under threat from the fire, is located just 20 kilometers west of Paradise, a town that was destroyed by a massive wildfire in 2018, resulting in the deaths of 85 people.
The western United States has also been experiencing several heat waves since the beginning of June, and dozens of fires are currently burning in the region.
Oregon, California’s northern neighbor, is battling a megafire that is the largest in the country, having ravaged more than 268,000 acres of forest and prompting evacuations in a rural region.
Jacob Stone and Anne-Marie Provost, with AFP
