Jasper National Park officials said temperatures have cooled and rain started soon after midnight on Wednesday. Because of the 10 to 15 millimetres of rain in Jasper National Park, it said it led to minimal fire behaviour and spread on Thursday. “This precipitation will likely keep fire behaviour low for the next 72 hours,” tweeted Jasper National Park on Thursday..It said 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, it said warm weather is forecasted and will increase wildfire activity.At the moment, it pointed out the Jasper Wildfire Complex (JWC) poses no threat to neighbouring communities. It added accurately mapping the JWC has been challenging for reasons such as strong winds, extreme fire behaviour, smoke, and relocating the incident management personnel to Hinton on Wednesday. The latest map shows the estimated perimeter of what has been identified as the north and south wildfires. This map is the best available estimate based on satellite imaging and what crews have been able to see from the ground.Future maps will change when it can map the perimeter from the air. Because the perimeter of the two wildfires have met, it will be referring to them as the JWC. It estimated this area spans 36,000 hectares. However, it said the levels of fire activity within the mapped perimeters can vary widely. The JWC includes the combined north and south wildfires and the Utopia Wildfire near Miette Hot Springs that started on July 19. The Utopia Wildfire was almost being held before the other wildfires started and will be reassessed on Friday. The Unified Incident Command Post has opened up in Hinton. It thanked the Town of Hinton and their residents for their support. Jasper National Park concluded by saying unified command means the responsibility for the response is shared among multiple agencies. It said managing this emergency under unified command creates a safer, more effective environment to work in.“All agencies know where resources are and what they are being used for,” it said. “They can use all available resources and work in tandem rather than working around each other.” Jasper caught on fire on Wednesday, with a popular lodge and many other buildings in the town up in flames.READ MORE: UPDATED: Town of Jasper ablaze, fire reaches historic Park Lodge, military on the wayParks Canada Incident Commander Katie Ellsworth and Municipality of Jasper Incident Commander Christine Nadon confirmed parts of the southern wildfire in Jasper National Park have found their way into the town’s limits. “At just before 6 p.m. this evening, portions of the South Fire in Jasper National Park reached the outskirts of the Jasper townsite after being driven by strong winds gusts from the south and southeast,” said Ellsworth and Nadon.
