Jasper re-entry: Hotels get ready to house residents, recovery workers

A firefighter in the Lake Edith area of Jasper National Park on July 28, 2024. (Source: Parks Canada)

Jasper’s hotels will play a key role in providing short-term housing for residents and recovery workers, but they first need a deep clean.

Darcy Caroll, who manages the Athabasca Hotel, said there had been two major fires within 500 feet of the building. He left at 3:30 a.m. on July 23 once all the guests and staff were evacuated.

"It was raining down ash, and we shut off all our systems … to prevent contamination, but some of the guests on their exit left the windows open, so we got some contamination," Caroll said.

Carpet cleaners have been busy at work at the hotel for two weeks and are about halfway finished. The walls and ceilings are also being cleaned, ceiling tiles need to be replaced and every electronic and kitchen appliance needs to be disassembled, cleaned and reassembled.

Caroll said insurance has been covering the cleaning costs, but it was nevertheless an endeavour to clean a building more than 100 years old.

The Jasper fire is estimated to have destroyed 30 per cent of structures in the townsite, including 820 residential units.

To address the need for temporary housing, officials with the municipality and Parks Canada plan to utilize hotel rooms or camp-style accommodation for the short-term and bring in modular units for the long-term within 90 days.

Caroll is already housing some of his staff who lost their homes, and he plans to offer rooms to his recovery team and residents without a home. He is also offering his two parking lots as a space for modular units.

"We all got to chip in and help out everybody here, and we’re doing all of that," Caroll said. "It’s a collective effort."

Stuart Back, chief operating officer of Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit, said they recognized that hotels were "a keystone element to the recovery process."

Pursuit has brought 400 out of its 700 rooms in Jasper back online as of last week and expects to reach 500 rooms by the end of this week.

More than half of the usable rooms are housing contractors working to get the rest of Pursuit’s properties open again. Pursuit is also housing over 30 team members who have lost their homes.

"So, there’s a bit of a cascading effect there, but we’re making great progress getting rooms cleaned and getting things back [to being] usable," Back said, noting that Pursuit has brought in over 200 contractors.

He added they were hoping to start offering rooms to residents soon, and they would offer a discounted rate, although many residents will likely have their stay covered by insurance.

Pursuit is also working with the Municipality of Jasper to make sure there is space for essential workers in the near term.

"We’re expecting these to be relatively short-term fixes because most of the hotel rooms are not really long-term occupancy units," Back said. "People need space for storage and kitchens and different things that most of our inventory doesn’t have, but where it’s applicable and where it’s suitable and where it’s acceptable, we want to make sure that it’s available."

Back acknowledged the importance of accommodations for supporting other businesses in the tourism industry, and recovery will ultimately require visitor revenue to come in.

"We definitely recognize that factor in Jasper as being important, and as soon as we feel comfortable that we worked with the municipality and the business operators to satisfy the short-term needs for contractors and locals, then we’d be looking to see what spare capacity existed for tourism," he said.

Jasper Inn & Suites experienced no major damage apart from a few roof tiles that blew off, but like many other hotels in town, it had considerable smoke damage as well as ash and char throughout.

INNhotels president Lisa Levasseur said in an email that Paul Davis, a restoration company, is working to get sections cleaned so the Jasper Inn can start reopening in stages.

She estimated it would take two to three months of specialized cleaning to properly restore everything in the building.

"The Jasper Inn already has the crew from Paul Davis staying with us and they are just now getting enough rooms cleaned to accommodate others," Levasseur said. "Our focus will remain on supporting the community and housing locals and crew workers as long as is needed during the re-build of the town.

The Jasper Inn is offering special crew rates and discounts long-term for locals. The company also took in over 90 evacuees, providing free room and board, for a few weeks at Terracana Ranch Resort, one hour west of Jasper.

Our entire INNhotel family wants to do everything we can to support the town during the re-build, at the Jasper Inn as well as all our other properties, offering long-term rates, special discounts and staying open this winter at Terracana," Levasseur said.

As of Saturday, the Jasper wildfire had been reclassified as under control.