The Mt. Cumnock wildfire continues to spread, growing from 300 hectares to about 900 hectares, north of Jasper.

According to Parks Canada fire officials, the planned burnout for last week of the south-eastern slope of the mountain was put on hold when the fire took a natural run up the opposite northern perimeter on Friday, Aug. 28.

This actually happened within the designated containment area. It was outside of the Snake Indian Valley (SIV), it happened actually in the valley just to the west of the SIV, behind Mt. Cumnock. But it did grow significantly to the north,” said Kim Weir, Fire Communications Officer for Jasper National Park.

Weir said the natural fire run to the north switched the focus of fire fighters on the ground and in the air to doing a burnout on the northern side of Mt. Cumnock, consuming  the forest so that the fire couldn’t spill through the northern gap of the mountain and into the SIV.

There are no buildings in the area, and the fire officials’ main concern is keeping the fire from spreading into the SIV, where it could spread to the Athabasca Valley, where everything – highway, people and buildings are situated.

The fire created a large column of smoke that could be easily seen from Highway 16 along Jasper Lake, about 15 kilometres from the wildfire on Saturday.

Currently, Parks Canada has three initial attack crews on the ground – the Jasper initial attack crew, a crew formed of experienced Jasper trail crew members, and one crew that has been brought in from La Mauricie National Park in Quebec. Seven helicopters are being used, which can be often seen returning to town with water buckets dangling below them.

Parks crews are attempting to minimize air traffic over the townsite. On Tuesday, two unidentified helicopters were told to leave the town, as they posed an “air traffic threat” to the parks helicopters combatting the Mount Cumnock blaze.

Weir said it is normal to bring in crews from other National Parks to help out, and that it is just because they need that kind of manpower for the operations they want to do. She also said the fire crews are well staffed to handle a blaze of this size.