Rain may help firefighters battling blaze in Canadian tourist town
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, July 26 (Reuters) -Steady rain is likely to help firefighters working to contain a massive wildfire that has devastated parts of the western Canadian tourist town of Jasper, authorities said on Friday.
Jasper is in the middle of mountainous Jasper National Park in the province of Alberta. A huge fast-moving fire has damaged or destroyed up to half the town's structures.
Parks Canada said between 10 mm and 15 mm of rain had fallen on Thursday. "This precipitation will likely keep fire behavior low for the next 72 hours," it said in a statement.
"Crews will take advantage of this time to make as much progress as possible to suppress the wildfire and reduce further spread. While rain in Jasper is a welcome sight, warm weather is forecast and will increase wildfire activity."
Authorities have so far declined to give specific details of how many buildings were lost in Jasper, which normally has a population of around 5,000. Video posted to social media showed entire blocks had been burned to the ground.
The town and park, which draw more than 2 million tourists a year to this area of the Rocky Mountains, were evacuated on Monday, when officials estimated there were up to 10,000 people in the town and a further 15,000 visitors in the park.
Late on Thursday, authorities said crews had managed to protect all of Jasper's critical infrastructure. This included the hospital, schools and a wastewater treatment plant.
The Jasper Park Lodge, one of the largest hotels in town, said it had suffered some damage but most structures remained standing and intact. The 400-room residence is run by Fairmont, a group owned by France's Accor ACCP.PA.
The Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which can carry 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Edmonton to Vancouver, runs through the park. The operator said on Thursday there were no signs of damage.
The federal government said in April that high temperatures and tinder-dry forests meant this could be a catastrophic year for wildfires in Canada.
The current fire could be one of the most damaging in Alberta since a 2016 blaze that hit the oil town of Fort McMurray, forcing the evacuation of all 90,000 residents and destroying 10% of all structures there.
Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Mark Heinrich
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
