Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
While the Municipality of Jasper lost power at 4 a.m. on Sept. 5, officials were already working to safely switch critical infrastructure to generator power by the afternoon.
Those sites include the water and wastewater treatment plants, water wells, traffic lights, the hospital and the Jasper Activity Centre.
The rest of the townsite, however, will have to wait.
鈥淩esidents and visitors should be prepared for an extended power outage,鈥� said Mayor Richard Ireland during a press conference late Monday morning.
The precipitation on Sunday night dropped three to five millimetres of rain, which helped reduce the size of the Chetamon wildfire from an estimated 8,000 hectares on Sept. 4 to between 5,000 and 7,000 ha by the morning of Sept. 5.
鈥淭he wildfire still poses no risk to the Jasper townsite,鈥� Ireland said.
The municipality activated its Emergency Support Services Plan. A reception and information centre was opened at the Jasper Activity Centre at 11 a.m. People can also phone 780-852-6540 for updates.
Parks Canada said that the rain helped to bring about a reduction in both the smoke conditions and the fire鈥檚 behaviour.
鈥淭he rain did buy us a few days,鈥� said Katie Ellsworth, Parks Canada鈥檚 plan section chief on the Chetamon Wildfire.
Firefighters were able to get into critical areas of the wildfire and gained access for ATCO to work on repairing the power transmission line. There鈥檚 still much work ahead in the coming days for those firefighting crews.
鈥淥ur focus will be to develop control lines along the southern flanks toward the community of Jasper and use traditional sprinkler lines and other appropriate fire tactics,鈥� Ellsworth said.
Parks Canada will be working with partners in Alberta Agriculture and Forestry to investigate the potential of air tanker control and using specialized fire behaviour prediction forecasts to look at fire growth models to better understand the fire鈥檚 potential for growth.
For now, the wildfire is still being held 15 kilometres from the townsite, where traffic lights don鈥檛 work and restaurants and shops are mostly dark and vacant.
Once the power transmission lines went down, ATCO enacted its own emergency response plan to bring generator power to critical sites.
鈥淥ur crews are working as quickly and safely as possible. We expect generator (power) for critical sites to be switched over by early this afternoon,鈥� said Amanda Mattern, regional manager with ATCO Electric.
鈥淎long with our emergency response plan, we are working under the direction from the municipality and Parks Canada to determine the staged approach to bring on additional powerload to other parts of the town.鈥�
Residents were advised to follow some tips to prepare themselves for the extended outage:
- disconnect appliances and electronics to avoid damage from electrical surges when power is restored;
- only open fridges and freezers when absolutely necessary;
- have alternate plans for refrigerating medications and using power-dependent medical devices;
- if using a generator at home, only use it outside and away from windows; and
- if the generator is connected to your electrical panel, ensure that you use a rated transfer device to prevent backfeed into the power system
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