After the inferno, Jasper is on the rebound

But there is sadness, trauma and apprehension hidden behind the recovery

Photo: Rachel Bailey

Rachel Bailey finally saw a future for herself running a fine dining restaurant in the Rocky Mountain paradise of Jasper, Alberta.

The native of Manchester, England, was drawn to the snowy peaks and turquoise lakes in 2013, and spent much of the next decade struggling to realize her dream of Canadian citizenship. Her plan was to use her British law degree to become accredited in Canada but she found herself working part-time in a Jasper bistro and at a local law firm.

By the end of 2023, she’d become a Canadian citizen and the owners of the bistro where she worked had asked her to use her sommelier skills to open a new concept that paired wines with fresh local game and produce. Bailey was invited to become part-owner and the idea for Peacock Cork and Fork was born.

Bailey and her partners purchased an upper level space on Patricia Street in Jasper’s downtown and on June 12th, the restaurant opened to great fanfare.

TripAdvisor featured 30 reviews, all of which were glowing about the food and the hostess who curated the wines.

“I saw this as my future,” Bailey said when I interviewed her this week. “Then it burned, my home burned and when that was taken away I thought: ‘What am I supposed to do now?’,”

Just 40 nights after opening - on July 22nd last year - the Peacock was so badly damaged by the wildfire that nearly swept away the entire town that it had to be condemned. Bailey lost not only her livelihood but the house she rented further up Patricia Street.

My wife and I met Bailey - Rachel - when she served us in one of the bustling restaurants that survived the fire, Harvest, just downstairs from where the Peacock was located.

Eleven months after the fire that destroyed one third of Jasper’s 1,113 buildings and burned an area nearly the size of the island of Montreal in the surrounding national park, it feels like a town that is just getting by.

Gazing towards the town from the Maligne Canyon look-out, the landscape looks like Mordor, scorched earth, pock-marked by thousands of blackened tree stumps. No-one knows how much wildlife was lost, though it was recorded that elk and grizzly bears wandered the main streets of the town in the days after the fire looking for an escape route.

Today there are shoots of green grass sprouting between the dead trees but any recovery will take decades, if the forest even grows back in the warmer, drier climate.

On the surface, Jasper is rebounding well. The restaurants and hotels are full; the Journey Through the Clouds glass-domed Rocky Mountaineer train is running again; and, construction crews are rebuilding burned down neighbourhoods to strict development codes (wood siding and roofing are outlawed).

The wonder is that Jasper is accepting any tourists at all just 11 months later after such destruction.

Only the heroics of the local volunteer firefighters saved the main commercial strip and the critical infrastructure like the school, hospital and wastewater treatment plant, without which life in the town would be impossible. Eight members of the fire department lost their own homes that night.

The wildfire fighters were able to protect some key buildings but it was the arrival of rain on the evening of Wednesday, July 24th that the town was saved.

Unfortunately, that may prove a temporary respite. The moisture situation update provided by Alberta’s agriculture ministry last week suggests the annual precipitation accumulation, relative to the long-term norm, for large areas around Jasper is very low (12-25 years) or extremely low (25-50 years).

The fire was expected to come from the west, not the south, and that side of the town remains vulnerable, despite prescribed burning and the thinning of the town perimeter.

Everyone knows that the park remains a tinder-box that could light up again at any time.

Rachel said there is a hidden sadness to life in Jasper.

“There is trauma at what happened - and apprehension that it might happen again. But it’s buried. It’s at the back of people’s minds but they’re just dealing with life,” she said.

A captivating book by Canadian Press reporter Matthew Scace: Jasper on Fire, offers a blow-by-blow account of how the towering columns of smoke and flame nearly engulfed the town.

Scace details how the lodgepole pines, white spruce and Douglas firs that pack the dense forests around Jasper were primed to burn, thanks to the ease with which wildfires traverse the valleys that surround the town. Fires have been getting more intense all over Western Canada, as the towns of Slave Lake, Fort McMurray and Lytton, B.C., can testify.

By summer 2024, the Canadian prairies were suffering a multi-year drought that was getting worse. On Sunday, July 21st, the mercury in Jasper hit 38 degrees Celsius.

Rachel said she was in her restaurant on the night of the 22nd and was aware of a fire to the north-east of the town, towards Hinton, and of another separate blaze south of the town.

Everyone knew to have an evacuation kit packed at all times and to keep their cars filled with gas.

Rachel said when ash started to fall on the town, she knew they were going to have to evacuate. She sent her staff home and packed up the desserts of the remaining diners to clear the restaurant. Within 10 minutes of locking the door, an evacuation alert was issued, swiftly followed by an evacuation order. That saw Rachel, her then boyfriend John, her roommate Charlotte and her dog, Moosa, join 25,000 other people from the national park heading west to Valemont, B.C., where many residents and visitor congregated for a night or two. (Highway 16 north-east to Hinton was closed, as was the Icefield Parkway south).

Rachel eventually travelled to Osoyoos, B.C., to live for two months after the fire. In the immediate aftermath, she said she didn’t know whether her business or her home were still standing. “I thought: ‘How can a town just go?’ But that’s what people were preparing for,” she said.

It was only when she saw a video of the Wicked Cup coffee shop burnt to the ground that the reality hit home - it was located on the block next to her home.

The nearby St. Mary & St. George Anglican Church was another building that was consumed by fire. Only its stone base is now visible, like some medieval ruin.

The next day, Rachel found that a burning ember had landed on the Peacock’s roof and caused so much damage the space had to be condemned.

“Am I traumatized? Oh yeah. I’ve known hardship but that was something else,” she said.

Three weeks after the fire hit, Rachel turned 40 and realized there was no future left for her in Jasper.

She returned to the town this summer to say goodbye to friends and make some money, before renewing her legal studies in preparation for her bar exams on Vancouver Island.

I asked if she’ll miss one of Canada’s most enchanting towns, which, as anyone who has been there will know, is an unfair question.

Rachel broke down in tears. “It’s just such a special place,” she said. “There are 20,000 people in the summer but under 5,000 the rest of the year. Everyone is so kind. We have community dinners and when people go through hardship everyone helps out.

“I have been very, very blessed. When your cup is filled with love, you have more to give to others,” she said. “I’m here to make my peace with it.”