Jasper Evacuated due to wildfire

[Cycling76er]

Just woke up. 6 hours and no updates that I can find on the situation during this time. I’m dreading the first new update that comes :’(

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by GGG

One thing with these situations is there is no reason for a structure to ever burn from a wildfire. It is poor design decisions that leads to buildings down.

You know that many of the buildings in town are really old, right?

[marsplasticeraser]

it’s wild to hear flames 300’ in the air.

I’m not sure what can be done with fires like that, but would having brick homes like they do in the uk make a difference?

Like if they rebuild Jasper will the architectural style and building codes change to brick buildings with fire ######ant roofs, or will that not really help in a fire like this?

Having lived in the uk and seen homes built it was somewhat incredible how little wood was used. Cinder clocks, steel, and then bricks on exterior.

[Fuzz]

Not much news, but CBC TV is reporting structural firefighters are still working in town, somehow. So not everything is lost yet.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by marsplasticeraser

it’s wild to hear flames 300’ in the air.

I’m not sure what can be done with fires like that, but would having brick homes like they do in the uk make a difference?

Like if they rebuild Jasper will the architectural style and building codes change to brick buildings with fire ######ant roofs, or will that not really help in a fire like this?

Having lived in the uk and seen homes built it was somewhat incredible how little wood was used. Cinder clocks, steel, and then bricks on exterior.

No I don’t think they will build roofs out of fire ants.

[powderjunkie]

I've heard speculation that the main fire didn't necessarily reach the town, but fires started from advance embers? Maybe there is some hope...

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by GGG

You put non flammable roofs on buildings. The primary mechanism of buildings burnings is those embers landing on roofs lighting them on fire.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-to-burn/

Here is a starting point of a fairly accessible podcast or transcript if you don’t want to listen and links to a bunch of the research.



This is not true.

As someone who works in the industry designing and testing building products to resist fire, it's not as simple as just slapping non-combustible exterior cladding and roofing products on it.

A good case and point to this is the Scotch Creek Fire Department, had a corrugated steel roof and steel cladding, all exterior products non-combustible, still ended up being a smoking hole in the ground after the fire last year, and it wasn't even in a particularly dense part of the forest.

I think you missed the two most important parts of your link.

Firstly clearing out most of the vegetation within 100 feet of a structure. Imagine what these mountain towns would look like if we removed most of the vegetation.

and most importantly

Not to mention, many homeowners just kind of instinctively understand that the odds of being in a wildfire are extremely low. There are more than 40 million homes in wildfire-prone areas, and only a few thousand burn every year. Homeowners might decide it’s just not worth spending time and money to change their properties.

Maybe its acceptable not to mitigate every risk in every situation. If you live in the mountains, the probability of your property burning in your lifetime is next to 0.

[Playfair]

I don't think this is the time for the who, what, where, when, why or how of all this. We have no idea how devastating this is to the people, how traumatizing it is not knowing, or wondering what they are going to do. The community of Lytton is still reeling from that community's fire. People are still not living there.

Maybe the people of the fire are more important than the fire itself. Compassion seems to have been lost here over time. The jokes wouldn't have been tolerated until an appropriate amount time has past. Maybe that's a result of social media. This could be our family. This could be us.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Playfair

I don't think this is the time for the who, what, where, when, why or how of all this. We have no idea how devastating this is to the people, how traumatizing it is not knowing, or wondering what they are going to do. The community of Lytton is still reeling from that community's fire. People are still not living there.

Maybe the people of the fire are more important than the fire itself. Compassion seems to have been lost here over time. The jokes wouldn't have been tolerated until an appropriate amount time has past. Maybe that's a result of social media. This could be our family. This could be us.

Discussing it is fine.

Showing compassion to the individuals directly affected and being sad about our personal connections to the town is also appropriate. We can do both...just picking your audience is the best approach. Like, I'm not going to track down a displaced person and bend their ear about the inappropriate architecture for the area - that'd be stupid. Discussing - in real time - the how's and the how-to avoids is perfectly acceptable.

I guess at least you can now empathize with the gun nuts in the States who don't want to talk gun control in the wake/aftermath of mass shootings since you have the exact same energy.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Dan02

As someone who works in the industry designing and testing building products to resist fire, it's not as simple as just slapping non-combustible exterior cladding and roofing products on it.

A good case and point to this is the Scotch Creek Fire Department, had a corrugated steel roof and steel cladding, all exterior products non-combustible, still ended up being a smoking hole in the ground after the fire last year, and it wasn't even in a particularly dense part of the forest.

I think you missed the two most important parts of your link.

Firstly clearing out most of the vegetation within 100 feet of a structure. Imagine what these mountain towns would look like if we removed most of the vegetation.

and most importantly



Maybe its acceptable not to mitigate every risk in every situation. If you live in the mountains, the probability of your property burning in your lifetime is next to 0.

Those odds may be changing, though. It isn't that hard to imagine Canmore experiencing the Jasper situation.

How do you build a firebreak while maintaining wildlife corridors around that town?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Those odds may be changing, though. It isn't that hard to imagine Canmore experiencing the Jasper situation.

How do you build a firebreak while maintaining wildlife corridors around that town?

OMG if I hear one more thing about wildlife corridors.

[PepsiFree]

It’s exactly because the risks are so low that you’d never get buy-in for a firebreak the size of which would be necessary to actually stop a town like Canmore or Banff from burning down.

You can pop over to the thread about logging near and around trails to see how quickly people resorted to insults and telling others to shut up for taking any position that wasn’t apoplectic defiance against their recreational “views” being altered. Or look at any conversation about improving the economical viability of places like Canmore or Banff. People get genuinely upset over anything that even hints at changing how they wanted these places to be 20 years ago (let alone how they are now).

I guarantee it won’t just be residents either. You’ll have thousands of people loudly opposed to altering places like Banff because it will harm their ability to enjoy the view when they visit, not giving a crap about the people at risk.

[Icantwhisper]

Originally Posted by Playfair

I don't think this is the time for the who, what, where, when, why or how of all this. We have no idea how devastating this is to the people, how traumatizing it is not knowing, or wondering what they are going to do. The community of Lytton is still reeling from that community's fire. People are still not living there.

Maybe the people of the fire are more important than the fire itself. Compassion seems to have been lost here over time. The jokes wouldn't have been tolerated until an appropriate amount time has past. Maybe that's a result of social media. This could be our family. This could be us.

People deal with/process things in different ways, humour is one of them.

[Samonadreau]

It's really bad In the town of Jasper. Like really bad. I've seen some videos I'm not allowed to share but almost worst case scenario for what could've have happenned last night considering there was lots of rain in the forecast.

it's devastating.

[Nancy]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1816479177576456277

[Fuzz]

There is a fire about 15km south of Golden too. Fingers crossed that one doesn't move north. So many burning now...

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Dan02

As someone who works in the industry designing and testing building products to resist fire, it's not as simple as just slapping non-combustible exterior cladding and roofing products on it.

A good case and point to this is the Scotch Creek Fire Department, had a corrugated steel roof and steel cladding, all exterior products non-combustible, still ended up being a smoking hole in the ground after the fire last year, and it wasn't even in a particularly dense part of the forest.

I think you missed the two most important parts of your link.

Firstly clearing out most of the vegetation within 100 feet of a structure. Imagine what these mountain towns would look like if we removed most of the vegetation.

and most importantly



Maybe its acceptable not to mitigate every risk in every situation. If you live in the mountains, the probability of your property burning in your lifetime is next to 0.

Agree with everything you said here. If we are making a conscious choice that it’s not worth the effort or sacrifice then when this happens we should point back to those decisions and say the risks were acceptable.

However I think the reaction to a government agency saying post wild fire that we accept the loss of entire towns due to wildfire because it is expensive to mitigate and will ruin the spirit of the towns would not be well received. So if we are making this choice we should be open and honest about the choice we are making.

[Fuzz]

I'm not even sure it's possible to mitigate fires like this, unless living Under The Dome is a possibility.

[Nancy]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1816494618542031344

[Senator Clay Davis]

Yeah looking grim

https://twitter.com/user/status/1816494189338566866