Jasper Marks 1 Year Since Wildfire Devastated Townsite

Nancy Addison is still waiting for a house to come home to, one year after a wildfire raged through Jasper, Alta. She moved to Jasper with her husband about 40 years ago. She spent most of that time as a school teacher, but also immersed herself volunteering in the community during her time as the people's warden for St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church. But Addison has bounced around Canada for the past year. Her house was one of the 358 structures in the beloved tourist community that were lost to the flames.

About one-third of the buildings within the townsite, nestled in the heart of Jasper National Park, were incinerated last summer when a forest fire moved in. \"It makes you feel very far away, without support when you're … moving from place to place,\" Addison said. \"That stings the heart. My sense of community is strong, but there are lots of people who won't come back.\"

Last summer, several fires burning in the national park flared dangerously, forcing thousands of people, including 5,000 residents of Jasper, to evacuate the national park. Within a day, a fire burning south of the Jasper townsite drew dangerously close, entering the community on the evening of July 24, and burning through neighbourhoods and streets lined with businesses. Evacuees were displaced for weeks, at least. Those who lost homes had to stay away longer.

Firefighter Morgan Kitchen, a 24-year-old man from Calgary, died as crews continued to battle the fire for weeks after the damage was done. A year after the fire moved in, the mountain community remains in recovery. Efforts to rebuild have been steady, but slow.

The Municipality of Jasper is commemorating the one-year anniversary this week. Officials are scheduled to give media tours of the area Monday to show what's been done to recover from the fire, and Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland is to speak with reporters. A week of activities are also planned to bring the community together, including painting workshops, an online talking circle for displaced residents and live music.

Jasper's chief of administration, Bill Given, said the one-year anniversary will be different for everyone. \"We appreciate that this is going to be a difficult time for many people in our community,\" Given said. \"We want to ensure that they have access to a way to commemorate the events of the past year in a way that's meaningful, but also that they have an opportunity to look forward to a brighter future.\"

Rebuilding what was lost to the flames is expected to take years but signs of recovery are visible. Rubble has been cleared away and hollow plots once filled with blackened foundations are now being backfilled with soil and readied for construction. \"Jasper has never experienced the level of construction activity that's going to take place over the next several years,\" says Doug Olthof, acting director of the Jasper Recovery Coordination Centre.

Only the lilac bushes in front of his house were singed by the fire. Across the street, an entire row of houses was destroyed. \"Some days what you're looking at is progress towards recovery,\" he says of the daily view from his doorstep. \"Other days, it's just very sad.\" He says he expects the full residential rebuild will take five to 10 years.

So far, 114 properties have been cleared for construction while 71 remain held up by soil-testing requirements for contaminants, says the municipality's latest update to council. Development permits have been issued to 40 fire-impacted homes, along with a handful of multiplexes, hotels, commercial properties and others, says the report from July 8.

Parks Canada is conducting a formal review of the fire and response, which is not yet public. Last week, Jasper published its own review based on surveys and interviews with more than 300 firefighters and other emergency personnel. Jasper's report said the overall response to the wildfire was a success, but noted some issues were caused by the Alberta government trying to get more involved in a decision-making capacity.

The report prompted Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to demand an apology and retraction of the report, saying her government is not to blame and that Ottawa should've asked for help sooner. Back in Jasper, no two assessments of the municipality are the same. Oliver Andrew, manager of the century-old Astoria Hotel on Jasper's main drag, says his community is stronger than ever. But the lifelong Jasperite says some friends have decided to leave for good.

Big changes are coming for the 35-room boutique hotel. Andrew has decided the hotel's cedar shake roof — a highly flammable material featured on several of the homes lost in the fire — is soon to be replaced with a fireproof material. Though progress is slow, Andrew said the fire has encouraged the municipality to embrace a rebuild that will help fireproof the community and address long-standing issues, including its zero per cent vacancy rate.

As for Addison, she still has no stable housing. She's currently staying in a cabin at Riding Mountain National Park, after moving between Vancouver, Ottawa and Revelstoke, B.C., to live with friends and family. She is working with a builder to design a new home, which she hopes will be complete in two years. For now, Addison said she feels thankful for what she has but is looking forward to the day she can return home for good. \"I'm learning to live with less,\" she said. \"You just don't need very much to survive. But you do need people and you do need community and you do need hope.\"