There’s a lot to learn from the 2024 Jasper wildland fire

There’s a lot to learn from the 2024 Jasper wildland fire

Former Jasper Fire Chief Greg Van Tighem was in Whitehorse in April at the Wildfire Awareness Society’s Firesmart Festival. To a crowd at the Beringia Centre, Van Tighem recounted the fire’s rapid growth in the hot and dry July conditions. His slides showed where a roadside lightning strike had ignited a four-foot tree and in about five minutes, fifteen full size trees were ablaze. There were two other lightning strikes nearby which joined toget…