JASPER – When Mathew Conte moved to Jasper to become its fire chief in 2021, he was well aware of the wildfire risk that the town faced.
That is a risk shared by every forested community in Canada.
“That risk and the hazard is always there,” Conte said. “It’s not really a matter of if it will happen but when it will happen because everybody that lives in the forest communities knows that there’s always going to be that potential that a fire will start and threaten the community.”
Jasper National Park already had its share of blazes, including the 2025 Excelsior wildfire and the 2022 Chetamon wildfire, before facing its worst one in a century last summer, which burned 32,722 hectares and destroyed 30 per cent of the townsite.
Conte, who also serves as director of emergency management for the Municipality of Jasper, noted that while any community within a coniferous forest was at risk, he acknowledged that trees killed by mountain pine beetle may have made Jasper more prone to wildfire.
“I’m by no means a forest management expert, but anytime that you have dead trees over live trees, it’d definitely increase your risk,” he said.
In the weeks prior to the Jasper wildfire, the area was facing severe dry conditions with no precipitation. Local officials knew this would elevate the risk, and Parks Canada was already dealing with the Utopia fire in the Miette area along with a few other small blazes elsewhere.
On July 22, more fires broke out near the townsite and threatened to engulf the community. One was near the Jasper Transfer Station, which Conte and his department assisted Parks Canada with, followed by multiple fires south of town caused by lightning strikes.
After a helicopter reconned the south valley, the fire was projected to have grown about 100 hectares within the first hour. This drastic rate of growth played a decisive role in the decision to evacuate Jasper.
“We wanted to make sure we had enough time to get everybody out of the community safely and not have a situation where the fire was affecting their ability to evacuate,” Conte said. “It was an easy decision to make.”
More than 20,000 people evacuated from the Jasper townsite and the rest of the park, leaving firefighters to defend empty homes and businesses.
In the next two days, crews set up sprinklers to protect critical infrastructure from falling embers and worked to put a wet line and sprinkler protection around the townsite. More resources came to assist in preparing for the approaching fire, which arrived early in the evening on July 24.
Although Conte had helped tackle larger grassland fires in southern Alberta and the Kenow fire in Waterton, this was by far the most significant fire that he had ever faced.
Conte, who had been renting municipal housing, was among those who lost their home in the wildfire. Eight on-call casual firefighters also lost their homes, and four lost their regular jobs.
“To see in the destruction that was happening that night obviously took its toll on [community] members as well as the members of the fire department,” he said. “Every member in this department knows most people in this town, so if they did not lose their homes, they knew people who did, whether it was friends, family, whoever. They were seeing some destruction that would affect their lives or their friends or family’s lives.”
Multiple roofs caught fire as the embers came down on the community, leading to multiple structures being set alight and quickly taxing crews as they worked to save as much of the town as possible.
Crews were relieved around 3 a.m. after working 18 hours straight. Conte himself stayed in town for another six hours. At that point, there was no threat from the ember shower, but the replacement crews were still actioning multiple structure fires and making sure they could not spread.
Ultimately, firefighters saved most of the town and all critical infrastructure. The one fatality was Alberta Wildfire member Morgan Kitchen.
For over three weeks, as crews worked to contain the fire, the Municipality of Jasper and many others worked to prepare the town for re-entry. Residents finally returned on Aug. 16 with members of the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade welcoming them at the town’s east entrance.
“It was definitely a good point to reach in the event, to know that a majority of the incident and that risk was mitigated, and we were at a point where we could start welcoming people back into the community,” Conte said.
Nine months later, the fire chief acknowledged how the devastating event continues to affect his department.
“We all have a job to do, and unfortunately, emergency services don’t stop working,” Conte said. “We have to, obviously, provide that coverage 24/7, which is why we hired [eight] new terms.”
Many members have taken time off for their mental health, and among other initiatives, the department is developing a mental health program that will require check-ins with a therapist after significant events.
“It’s going to be, unfortunately, an ongoing thing now for quite some time,” Conte said. “The impacts were pretty devastating to members of the departments as well as all community members.”
