Jasper Wildfire Destroyed Our Home & Community
On July 22nd, we were forced to evacuate our home in Jasper. It seems that we have been on the run since then because we spent a couple of days in Hinton and then a few more in Edmonton. That’s when we got word from a friend who had stayed in Jasper to fight the wildfire telling us that our home was destroyed along with several of our neighbours’ homes. He shared a photo of the place where our house should have been, but all we could see was a foundation surrounded by twisted metal and charred, post-apocalyptic landscape. Nearby, our friends and neighbours homes had suffered the same fate. Some of those victims were My Jasper Nanny team members.
How Does The Tooth Fairy Find Us?
In just 4 short years, we’ve gone from the exhilarating joy of finally building our dream house to losing it all along with every single possession. We are heartbroken and can’t even find the familiar comfort we’ve come to rely on in our surrounding community. Our house grew organically from the ground as did our friendships and ties to Jasper because we were part of a community that was also part of our family.
Unfortunately, with all of our grownup worries consuming us, we didn’t even realize until days later that we missed a major childhood event. Our youngest child, Quinn, had spent an eternity wiggling and coaxing her front baby tooth to come out. When it finally did on Monday night, she placed it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. The evacuation order came that very night. When Quinn saw the picture of our burned house, she cried uncontrollably. “How is the tooth fairy going to find my tooth?” Of course the tooth fairy is magic & she was there lickety-split to collect the tooth. She just took a while to find us. Do you think Quinn believed us?
Our Original Trailer
We were like many of our friends & colleagues who had first come to Jasper to work at temporary jobs, living in shared accommodations. Our starter home was a palace because it was all ours. No roommates! It was a single-wide trailer with just one bedroom. Our kids shared a tiny room that we had converted from the add-on porch. Quinn was 3 1/2 and Elijah had just turned 6 when we finally bought our new modular home. We had lived in that mobile since we were married & had finally outgrown it in the spring of 2020.
July 2020, Our New Home Arrives
Seeing our first major investment being hoisted in the air by a crane was truly a scary sight. But our incomparable Jasper community brought street party vibes to the event and we were transformed, celebrating the spectacle and joy of the moment. I’m sure we could have sold tickets to our modern-day barn-raising event. Can you ever picture an entire finished house swinging from cables before being plunked down onto a foundation? It was remarkable.
Street Party Vibes With Special Jasper Peeps!
When our new house was finally ready to join our Jasper community, our kids along with the rest of the town joined in on the joyous & exciting adventure of hauling away the old darling & replacing it with the home of our dreams. Neighbours didn’t complain about having to move their cars. They formed a pop-up street party! We had moments of anxiety watching our house being gingerly aligned on the foundation, but the spirit of celebration that surrounded us melted away our fears.
A House Assembled Like Lego Blocks
Time to Pop the Champagne Cork
Our Jasper neighbours surprised us with a bottle of champagne. It’s a good thing we weren’t indoors because that thing would have gone through our brand new ceiling!
Making Memories & Planning Our Future
With our beautiful house secured in place, we had all the space we could ever need to grow our Jasper life. Our collections of treasures from parents and grandparents and many heirloom collectibles were a comforting constant. So were the quilts from grandparents & even great-grandparents.
We enjoyed our house to the max for 4 years & 3 weeks.
In A Matter of Minutes, It Was All Gone
Our bikes are reduced to a mangled pile of metal at the top of the driveway. How can so much stuff be incinerated down to nothing?
Many of Our Favourite Places Are Gone
The homes on either side of us were also destroyed in the wildfire as were the houses behind us. The homes across the street were still standing when Jasper National Park published the first damage report on July 27th. Some of our neighbours in the above photos are also dealing with the devastating loss of their homes.
We’ve lost all of our bikes. In the winter, both our kids were competitive skiers. Our ski equipment is gone. They took piano lessons & practised on our Yamaha piano. Also gone. It’s strange to think about how you suddenly must pivot when their lives were so rich & varied. Elijah was becoming a pretty gifted artist, having received a parcel of charcoals and other art supplies just weeks ago. Also gone. As is the guitar that also arrived in that latest parcel. He was already signed up for group guitar lessons.
It’s not a time to figure out all the details. It seems that rebuilding will have to happen gradually. Naturally. With patience.
Jasper Anglican Church
The remains of the historic Jasper Anglican Church in Jasper, Alta., on Sunday July 28, 2024. Photo by Brad Quarin, National Post
Losing St. George & St. Mary Anglican Church is devastating, not just for the church community but also for its services to the broader Jasper community. The Jasper Food Recovery Centre, which I had been running for several years, used a hall and fridges in the Anglican Church Hall. Grocery stores and resorts in Jasper and in Hinton generously set aside the most amazing fresh groceries, meats, vegetables, and pantry items. And The Wicked Cup, besides being a great stop on our daily walks, donated regularly to the Food Recovery Centre. Either volunteers or I would regularly visit each donor to pick up & stock our generous food recovery that was open to all Jasper residents. Jasper was an expensive place to live but we loved it, so we made it work.
Jasper United Church
The Jasper United Church was also completely destroyed. A community thrift store in the lower level of the United Church was probably the first stop for many Jasper newcomers. I began volunteering there about 20 years ago so I have had the immense honour of being part of an informal welcoming committee as newcomers to our little town searched for basic household necessities and clothing, especially people from warmer climates that were unfamiliar with our winter wonderland. The thrift store helped seasonal employees and immigrants get established in this very expensive tourist town. With the contents gone and likely never to be replaced, it’s tough to imagine this valuable resource reappearing any time soon.
It’s Time To Get Off The Road
We are living on the edge. We first evacuated to Hinton but, because of the smoke and ash, went on to Edmonton where friends had offered us their home for a few days. After that, friends in Revelstoke, B.C. invited us to stay for a few days. and Tomorrow, we’ll head to Salt Spring Island.
Healing & Finding a New Place To Call Home
Salt Spring Yoga Centre is both familiar and nothing like what we left behind in Jasper. Because of that, it’s likely exactly what we need right now. We definitely need to stop moving for a while and create some stability for the kids.
For several years now, I’ve made an annual return to Salt Spring Yoga Centre where I worked as Retreat Coordinator for the Kids Program at the 50th Annual Salt Spring Yoga Retreat. When word spread that I was in this terrible predicament, someone stepped up to offer us a 1-week stay in a home near the Salt Spring Island Yoga Centre. Once the retreat is over on August 7th, we really don’t know where we will go. Not yet.
We feel fortunate that we have been able to get away from the profoundly disturbing charred remains of our Jasper home. Now we hope that we will find healthy home where our kids can feel safe and heal from what must be an incomprehensible loss … it certainly has been for the grownups! We need to find a rental that is more permanent so that we are not constantly on the move. Somewhere that the kids know they will start school and make new friends.
Contact Us
Please email us at melody@myjaspernanny.com if you know of a house for rent or an extended term house sit. Or reach out through our Contact Page. We are currently staying at a 1-week house sit on Salt Spring Island, then will spend some time with friends and family on Vancouver Island. We are temporarily staying near Vancouver Island where my family and childhood friends still live. But we are reaching out to anyone that might have rental accommodations in smaller communities from Vancouver Island through to Revelstoke BC where we have old friends. We look forward to the possibility of making new friends. We did it before & we believe that we can do it again!