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STORY: :: As wildfires ravage this Canadian tourist town, the mayor visits his destroyed childhood home

:: Jasper, Canada

:: July 26, 2024

:: Richard Ireland, Mayor

“I see memories of a lifetime (...) Somewhere in here there’s a photograph of me with a birthday cake sitting on packing boxes when I was two. And now, it’s memories of family and friends.So many others are going to go through the same thing.”

A massive wildfire that destroyed about a third of the western Canadian tourist town of Jasper is still out of control but rain and cooler conditions are helping firefighters, authorities said on Friday.

While touring the devastation, Mayor Richard Ireland visited the remains of his family home, which had been completely destroyed by the flames. "Somewhere in here there’s a photograph of me with a birthday cake sitting on packing boxes when I was two," he said. "So many others are going to go through the same thing."

During a press conference before visiting Jasper, premier of Alberta Danielle Smith reported that more than 30% of the town's structures had been destroyed by wildfire.

Jasper, located in the middle of Alberta's picturesque Jasper National Park, is a major tourist destination. The town and park, which draw more than 2 million tourists a year to this area of the Rocky Mountains, were evacuated on Monday.