One Saskatchewan family’s journey out of a burning Jasper

As forest fires rage in Jasper, Alta., thousands of people have been forced to flee, including some from Saskatchewan.

For one Saskatoon family, it was a scary evening as one minute they were having supper while camping in Jasper and the next, they were trying to leave with a crowd of others.

“We were kind of at the tail end of almost a month-long canoe and road trip that we had taken,” Bryan Sarauer said. “We’d been up to the Yukon and had done some paddling up there and through Alaska and back through B.C., and we’d come down here.

“Monday, it was a beautiful afternoon. We had been out canoeing not far from the townsite. And we came back in for supper.… When we started to have supper there was smoke and you could see helicopters flying around.”

Sarauer said that as the weather changed and the wind picked up, umbrellas were flying down the street.

They soon found out roads were closing and people were being evacuated.

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“We started noticing that the lineups at the gas stations were by then blocks long,” Sarauer said.

They went back to the campground where they were staying.

Once the town was given an evacuation order, they hit the road — slowly. Sarauer said what normally is a seven-hour journey home has taken him three days.

“It took us three hours to go less than three kilometres to get out of that campsite. That fire was moving at times faster than we were driving.”

Overall it took less than two days for fast-moving wildfires to reach the Alberta Rocky Mountain town of Jasper, where multiple structures were burned Wednesday night.

About 25,000 people were evacuated from the park, including roughly 5,000 residents of the town, according to Parks Canada.

Sarauer said while his family’s situation was scary to deal with, it was nothing compared to the people actually living there.

“I’ve been looking for updates and hoping for the best — fingers crossed, everyone is OK. It’s a place we really enjoy. My wife and I spent our honeymoon there almost 26 years ago.”

As far as Saskatchewan’s wildfire situation goes, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Association (SPSA) said as of Thursday afternoon, more than 100 fires continue to burn in the north, 14 of which are not contained.

SPSA vice-president Steve Roberts said the province doesn’t have the capacity to send personnel to help in Alberta’s firefight.

Earlier this week, resources from Manitoba and Ontario were deployed to assist in Saskatchewan.

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