Some of you may know that I live in Alberta, Canada.
Some of you may know that we have a beautiful Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. I live 296 km or 184 miles from the park.
And to connect the third dot, some of you may have heard of the huge wildfire in the Park.
The fire started sometime on the week end. All residents and visitors of the town of Jasper were evacuated. Jasper has a population of about 11000 and then there would be thousands of visitors. Winds and high temperatures turned the fires into raging infernos. In the mountain valleys the fires tend to race to the bottom. Wednesday the fire entered the townsite of Jasper. About a third of the town was destroyed.
Last night they had some rain and much lower temperatures so were able to control much of the fire.
It is extremely dry in western Canada so plants and trees burn easily and rapidly.
Yesterday morning there was white ash over all my plants and the whole yard.
This situation has dominated our news this week. These are terrible fires.
I live in an urban area beside a forested ravine about 700 meters across. I am worried that a fire could start in the woods some day and it could easily burn through my neighborhood. I've aske our fire department what they are doing about the situation. They have one quad with some water barrels. I do not feel safe at all.
