Summer could be over long before the fight to tame the Jasper wildfire is won

The wildfire that incinerated hundreds of homes in Jasper and destroyed thousands of hectares of forest is expected to remain a threat on the national park landscape for months.

Parks Canada officials say they are preparing for a prolonged and difficult battle with the blaze. By burning deep underground and feeding off fuels untouched by recent rains, the fire threatens to resurface repeatedly, even areas that appear extinguished on the surface.

Landon Shepherd, Parks Canada incident commander, said crews are braced and prepared to keep fighting flares on the fire until well into autumn.

Shepherd said progress has been made in protecting the community from further damage, but the fire remains volatile. 

"The long-term prognosis is maybe a little bit less rosy in terms of overall control of the wildfire," Shepherd said during a news conference Tuesday.

"We're expecting that the fire season will continue, like it has for the last five fire seasons, where it may extend right into early November."

"We're geared up and braced that we might be dealing with wildfire for as long as that. And we're hoping to continue to get assistance from Mother Nature." 

He said the fire, like other large fires in western Canada, may smoulder underground until next spring. But the focus now is on minimizing the threat of potential flares. 

A fire of this magnitude and strength must be methodically extinguished, Shepherd said.

The fire has moved into the forest floor with hidden hot spots that can rise to the surface when conditions again become hot and dry. Once the flames rise to the surface and move into the trees, the fire can again move and expand quickly and pose a greater danger to crews and the community. 

The recent rain was not enough to extinguish that threat, Shepherd cautioned. 

"The larger fuels like logs and trees and roots in the ground, those deeper fuels, they're not affected," he said. "Our concern right now is just that [the fire] carries over through these light rain events and then push back up." 

The fire has now destroyed 34,000 hectares and continues to burn out of control. 

Weekend rain helped stifle the flames but the fire is expected to continue burning long after it's deemed safe for hundreds of evacuated residents to return home.