Former Jasper resident living in Labrador heartbroken by wildfire's destruction

Not long after being evacuated from her own community because of a wildfire, a Churchill Falls womanis devastated to see her former home of Jasper, Alta., be decimated by one.

Pamela Power told CBC News she is stunned by the images coming out of Jasper, documenting fires reaching the town and leaving a trail of destruction.

"It was heartbreaking. I had to take a few minutes this morning," Power said Thursday from Roddickton. "But everybody got out from what I hear, which is, you know, which is really good news."

Officials estimate 25,000 people have been evacuated, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said damage has been done to about 30 to 50 per cent of the town's buildings.

Power said she has roots and memories from her youth in Jasper, which makes the scope of loss all the more staggering.

"I got my very first job there, and my dad worked for the railroad. There's just so much that's, like, gone now," she said.

"The big part of the community that when I lived there was the arts community. So there's painters and photographers and artists that have, you know, one-of-a-kind pieces of work that are going to be destroyed now."

Power faced evacuation from wildfires earlier this summer when her and her family were forced to leave Churchill Falls. That evacuation order lasted two weeks, and was followed by another wildfire-related evacuation order in Labrador City earlier this month.

She said going through evacuation herself has left her overwhelmed as she watches what's happening in Jasper.

"We're still coming off of our evacuation from Churchill Falls, and then the evacuation from Lab City immediately after. So we've had a week to sort of calm down here on the Northern Peninsula, but yeah, the news about Jasper is pretty devastating."

Power said she's seen wildfire conditions change over recent decades, noting she was in Alberta when Fort McMurray was ravaged by wildfires in 2016.

She says governments need to be more prepared and proactive in their wildfire mitigation plans and their adaptation to climate change.

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