Wildfire forces evacuation at Jasper National Park in Canada

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) - A threatening wildfire caused thousands to flee overnight from one of Canada’s premier tourist destinations in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.

Officials said Tuesday they were dealing with major traffic gridlock as drivers fled on mountain roads and were told to slow down as they negotiated darkness and diminished visibility due to smoke and ash at Jasper National Park.

The park attracts about 2 million visitors a year and has 2,000 campsites, more than 100 hotels and a population of 4,700 permanent town residents. A blanket evacuation order was issued around 10 p.m. local time Monday.

Drivers were forced to use the treacherous mountain escape route to the neighboring province of British Columbia (B.C.) as other roads were blocked by the approaching wildfire.

“B.C. will do everything we can to provide safe refuge for evacuees from Jasper, and are working as quickly as possible to co-ordinate routes and arrange host communities on our side of the border,” Bowinn Ma, B.C.’s minister for emergency management, wrote on X before midnight Monday.

Jasper is not the only area under evacuation in Alberta, with 7,500 ordered out in various areas of the province as 170 wildfires were burning, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

One tourist told CBC News in a telephone interview from her vehicle that it took hours to move seven kilometers (4.5 miles).

"It's wall-to-wall traffic," said Carolyn Campbell. "It [the smoke] is pretty thick. We've got masks in the car."