Agricultural group saves 80 horses from wildfire in Jasper National Park

At least one story out of Jasper, Alberta has a happy ending.

As wildfires tear through the community, leaving devastation behind, 80 horses were saved from the area by a search-and-rescue group, with help from an agricultural society.

Shauna Cruden, president of the River Valley Agricultural Society in Hinton, Alta., was a part of the equine rescue mission.

“We were told by the local RCMP that we had one shot to get (the horses) out,” Cruden said. “The RCMP warned us that we weren’t going to be coming in and out with horses. We needed enough of us to go in one time and get out.”

READ MORE:

• Multiple structures ablaze as wildfire roars into Jasper, Alta., townsite
• Grande Prairie lends helping hand to Jasper wildfire evacuees
• Rapid response likely saved lives during Jasper wildfires, expert says

She said RCMP closed the highway between Hinton and Jasper on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, Hinton search and rescue was deployed to save what the group initially thought would only be 30 horses. The search-and-rescue group then reached out to the Agricultural Society for help.

“I put it up on our Facebook page, and within 45 minutes we were mobilized with 15 trucks and trailers and headed to Jasper National Park with RCMP escort,” Cruden said.

By 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, she said the group was on the road and ready to rescue the horses.

When the group arrived to the national park, Cruden said conditions weren’t too bad.

“There were some trees still on fire,” she said.

“Things were fairly calm. We could see the smoke from the south fire that ended up in Jasper. When we went through Tuesday morning there was nobody on the roads. There were no flames that you could see. Half of us went to the Jasper Park Lodge to the Fairmont to get their stable horses out, and half of us went up to the Pyramid Riding Stables to get the rest of the horses that were there.”

By noon on Tuesday, the animals were safe and sound in Hinton.

“There was donated hay,” Cruden said. “Our local Canadian Tire donated large buckets for water, and our local water trucking company had already filled all the water containers, so things were so smooth. The horses were happy and eating by 1 p.m. on Tuesday.”

She said the horses were quite calm during the rescue.

“Usually horses are a fairly stressful animal,” she said. “But this gang of horses are trail horses, so they’re pretty used to to tourists, the hustle and bustle of cars and buses, and wild animals. They’re used to walking head-to-bum on the trails. They’re calm. They’re what we call ‘bomb proof.’ They’re pretty chill, so I think they were just really happy to see us.”

When it comes to wildfire rescues, this wasn’t Cruden’s first rodeo. She said her community helped in a similar situation last summer.

“Last year at this time we evacuated Edson, our neighbours to the east,” she said.

“We housed 800 people down at our agriculture facility. We ended up feeding those people. We had anything from alpacas to chickens. Edson is a little more agricultural producing, so there were all sorts of critters that came. This is the second time in 12 months that out facility has housed evacuees.”

The grounds at the River Valley Agricultural Society are already empty. Cruden said half the horses that belong to Parks Canada were brought to a facility with grazing pastures, while the remaining horses were taken to a pasture outside of Hinton.

“It’s like nothing happened,” she said. “We cleaned up and we’re ready to help again if we have to with these horses, if they run out of grass.”

Nicholas Nissen, the mayor of Hinton, spoke with the Evan Bray Show on Friday morning.

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of heavy hearts in the community today,” said the mayor of the community 45 minutes northeast of Jasper.

Listen to Nissen’s interview with Evan Bray:

“Lots of grief. We are all grieving.”

Nissen said the community is watching lots of fire equipment roll through its streets heading toward Jasper.

“Lots of people have family, friends, businesses, homes… you name it. Our two communities have been intimately connected since the start,” he said. “It’s heavy hearts all around.”

Nissen said there are many emergency crews currently staying at hotels in Hinton as teams continue to fight the blaze.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Gillian Massie