As the summertime heat descends on Jasper National Park, many changes are seen. The most noticeable is the growing collection of sunburnt visitors traipsing the trails and riding the roads of the Park. Another is the gradual but sure increase in the fire danger as the season progresses. The combination of these two factors could lead to an incendiary situation. Literally.

Dave Smith, the fire behaviour specialist for Jasper National Park, has been busy lately, battling a wildfire east of Jasper townsite. While the cause of that blaze is still undetermined, Smith knows that human ignorance about fire danger could make the already difficult job of protecting the park from a devastating wildfire nigh on impossible.

Travellers coming into the park from elsewhere might be surprised at the lack of a fire ban. The province has already instituted bans in many forest management areas in the foothills of Southern Alberta. Smith says there’s a simple reason why fires are allowed in park while they are illegal outside its boundaries.

“We generally put fire bans on when things are drier than when the Province takes fire actions,” he said. “We have places where you can have fires in contained spaces and controlled locations. On provincial lands and private lands, it’s a little more free and there are all kinds of potential ignition sources, so they have to be more careful.”

Smith reminded all visitors (and this reporter) that it is illegal to have a fire anywhere in the park that is not in a designated, controlled fire pit, and even those venues may have restrictions. It’s common practice during busy times at the popular campgrounds to ban fires after midnight, but this measure is more for noise control than anything else. Because parks campground staffers are thick on the ground in places where fires can be lit, Smith says it is rare for an unattended or out-of-control campfire to become an issue.

“In the time that I’ve been involved with fire in Jasper, there was only one fire that escaped the designated campfire site. It was a result of someone leaving their campsite without dealing with it.”

With higher temperatures and low moisture levels, the fire danger index creeps towards extreme. At the time of last week’s wildfire, the danger was considered to be “high”. This measurement is determined by evaluating the amount of built-up combustible material and evaluating weather data such as relative humidity, temperature, wind speed and precipitation.

When the danger is high or extreme, Jasper park’s initial attack crew is on call, waiting for a report of smoke or patrolling the backcountry by helicopter. Another key tool for the cutting edge firefighter is the province-wide lightning locater, a GPS-powered database that records the precise location of each and every lightning strike. Given that lightning has been responsible for almost 40 per cent of all the ignitions in the park over the past few years, knowing the exact location of a strike is invaluable.

While lightning is an indiscriminate fire starter, lighting backcountry blazes as well as frontcountry fires, human caused fires are almost always near built-up areas or along the roads that pass through the park, Smith said. Cigarette butts discarded by passing motorists can turn into a serious problem, if conditions are right.

“There is a point on the fire danger scale where a lit cigarette can start a fire,” said Smith. “In the conditions we are in now, with a lack of green-up in the ditches, it could happen.”

No matter how a fire may have started, if visitors notice fire or smoke, Smith encourages contacting Parks at once.

“We’d much rather have people report a fire or smoke than ignore it.”