Wildfire warning as 25,000 tourists flee Canada national park in panic
Alberta province is in the grip of a scorching heatwave that has set off a chain of fires, causing mayhem and panic.
Thousands of tourists have been forced to flee Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies after hundreds of wildfires broke out.
Alberta province is in the grip of a scorching heatwave that has set off a chain of fires, causing mayhem and panic.
Huge tailbacks of cars clogged the roads out of Jasper, as desperate tourists tried to drive to towns in British Columbia.
However, the province has its hands full with its own fires, numbering over 300 hundred.
Drivers were told to make a vast U-turn east and make their way instead to Grande Prairie and Calgary, where emergency workers are setting up reception centres.
Tourists described scenes of chaos on the roads out of Jasper, as confusion reigned large.
“It’s wall-to-wall traffic,” Carolyn Campbell, an Edmonton resident told PA. “(The smoke) is pretty thick. We’ve got masks in the car.”
She said it took hours to move about four miles, and worried about others who fled with little petrol in their tanks.
Stephen Lacroix of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency said Jasper town estimated about 10,000 people, including seasonal workers, were there when the evacuation call went out.
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Mr Lacroix said police were going door to door to make sure everyone has left. He also said Parks Canada estimated about 15,000 people had been in the park.
Photos and videos shared on social media overnight into Tuesday showed bumper-to-bumper vehicles, their headlights glowing, inching through swirling tendrils of smoke.
Fires threatening from the northeast cut off road access east to Alberta’s capital, Edmonton.
Another fire roaring up from the south forced the closure of the north-south Icefields Parkway. That left one route open west to British Columbia.
Jasper council and Jasper National Park said the evacuation was “progressing well” and park and town officials scrambled to clear traffic gridlock, find fuel for vehicles and help vulnerable people to safety while marshalling resources to battle the fires.
“Everyone in Jasper must evacuate now,” the Alberta government said in an emergency alert on Monday. Parks Canada noted “an evolving and dynamic situation”.
Evacuees were told they had five hours to clear out, by 3am on Tuesday, and carry with them key documents, pets, medication and any other emergency supplies.
