Jasper family has a long road ahead

Jul 26, 2024 | 3:48 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “When we were evacuating and we were in that gridlock and the sky was orange and black, and there was ashes coming down on our car and we couldn’t move. And because it was just so packed, it bottlenecked traffic.I just thought is this it? Is this where we are going to go?”

That was Patti Urie’s state of mind on Monday night, as they fled Jasper heading west to avoid two wildfires that threatened the community. Ultimately, there was a significant loss, but not entirely. And the Jasper Evacuees Facebook page is how they found out their home is still standing.

“Is it safe? We don’t know. I mean, it could be toxic? It could be waterlogged,” says Joe. “It could be smoke damaged. It’s standing while all around us, it’s absolutely devastated.”

And while Joe is pretty calm about the fate of his home, Patti is anything but.

“All of my friends and community are suffering. And I have survivor’s guilt. I just learned that term and I realized that I couldn’t feel totally happy.”

The two have had an outdoor adventure business in Jasper for years.

“It is currently hibernating,” says Joe. “This isn’t the first time we just went through COVID, where we had to basically hibernate for a couple of years already. So because it’s a boutique experience and because Patty and I both come from families that said, don’t buy stuff with money you don’t have, we’re pretty well insulated, so we’re just going to be able to simply hold back and see what comes next.”

But while Joe says he and his family will eventually rebuild their lives, he’s not so calm about the politics.

“The frustration lies with some of the bureaucracy,” says Joe Urie. “There’s a lot of things that can be done that aren’t being done because there’s a level of crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s that is supposed to happen. I think that stuff can happen after the fact. Just get stuff done.”

The hope is to make their way as a family as close to home as they can get.

“Parks is said that once they get the fire out of town because there’s actually still some flames in town and there’s still some buildings with that are smouldering and fire was jumping from building to building as of yesterday,” says Patti. “But once they get that under control and then they can assess the damage, I think then they’ll have a better idea of a timeline and they’ll let us know.”