A wildfire 22 km west of Jasper that quickly flared up in windy conditions on Saturday, July 22, is now under control.

Jasper National Park officials predict the Minaga Creek wildfire, which reached 0.6 hectares in size, will be fully extinguished by July 25.

Bucketing operations on the Minaga Creek wildfire July 22. // Parks Canada

“We’re fairly confident that by tomorrow morning crews will be demobilized,” said Dave Argument, Jasper National Park’s resource conservation manager.

The fire started after a July 21 lightning storm. More than 100 lightning strikes were detected in Jasper National Park throughout the night on Friday, Argument said.

At approximately 4:10 p.m., a motorist reported seeing smoke high on a mountainside near the Decogine Warden Station. With the previous night’s storm, JNP Initial Attack fire crews were mobilized and ready to respond. They were on-scene within 20 minutes of the 9-1-1 call, Argument said.

“The crews were on alert,” he said. “They had been conducting smoke patrols.”

Smoke from the Minaga Creek wildfire July 22. // Parks Canada

A four-person crew and a helicopter responded immediately. On Sunday, July 23 another ground crew and two more helicopters joined the firefighting efforts.

Helicopters used water from a pothole lake in the area to douse the fire’s flames. Minaga Creek is approximately 6 km north of Highway 16.

The townsite of Jasper is surrounded by pine beetle-killed forest. While most of the needles from those dead trees have fallen to the ground, decreasing the fuel load, there is still a lot of standing dead wood in the Miette Valley extending into neighbouring Mount Robson Provincial Park.

“We’re certainly still concerned about that pass west of us,” Argument said.

The national parks service has done wildfire fuel reduction work to mitigate the chance of a large crown fire. In 2018, JNP contracted out the mechanical clearing of 270 hectares of beetle-killed forest adjacent to the townsite, on the Pyramid Bench. Plans to extend that fireguard to the north and west of the community with prescribed burns are on the books.

The Minaga Creek wildfire was 0.6 ha in size. Minaga Creek is approximately 22 km west of the Jasper townsite, 6 km north of Hwy 16. // Parks Canada

“There is a good buffer from things that might come at us from the west,” Argument said.

Another stretch of fireguard was created last year across the Athabasca Valley, on Signal Mountain. The area which could act as an anchor point in the case of a fire in the Maligne Range.

And after September’s wildfire which knocked out Jasper’s power for more than eight days, another firebreak now exists in the area surrounding Chetamon Mountain, in the east part of Jasper National Park.

“At the time that was an emergency and very alarming but it gives us now a fire break to the east,” Argument said.

The Chetamon Mountain wildfire in September knocked out Jasper’s power but in its wake left a significant fire break to Jasper’s east. // Parks Canada

JNP has worked closely with the Municipality of Jasper conducting evacuation planning simulations and emergency exercises “to understand where and how things need to happen if faced with a crisis which warrants evacuation,” Argument said.

But much of the onus for residents and visitors to keep safe during a wildfire remains on the individual. Members of the public should sign up for Jasper’s Emergency Alert Service and download the Province’s Emergency Alert App. Emergency kits should be ready to go and residents should be familiar with the MOJ’s Evacuation Guide.

The current fire rating in Jasper National Park is moderate—a factor that helped decrease the odds of the Minaga Creek wildfire from turning into something larger.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com