Curling mandarins can now add off-season wildfires to the list of threats facing the future of the Roaring Game.

People have just returned to Jasper, Alta. and despite terrible scenes of the “Utopia” wildfire destruction, there is relief the Jasper Curling Club escaped the blaze.

Less than 48 hours after the July 24 evacuation, 358 of Jasper’s 1,113 buildings were lost to the fire. The curling facility, housed by the Jasper Activity Centre, remains standing.

This was confirmed by the Jasper residents who returned home for the first time yesterday, after scattering across Alberta and British Columbia nearly four weeks ago.

“The town is a pretty sad sight, it’s overwhelming,” said curling manager Lena Fraser. “But the community has been working together well, (offering) lots of help.”

Some 25,000 people were ordered to evacuate—5,000 residents and some 20,000 visitors—and flee the town and historic national park.

Prior to the Aug. 16 return date, residents were warned to brace for a harsh new reality; a community often unrecognizable from the one they left behind.

Entire neighbourhoods on the south side of town were destroyed. Many services aren’t in operation and rebuilding is expected to take years.

Jasper is the second curling facility to dodge the threat of wildfires in the last year. Last summer, some residents of Kelowna, B.C. were forced to evacuate just two months before Kelowna Curling Club hosted the Pan Continental Championships.

“We evacuated at 11:15 p.m.,” said Hilary Olson, who has curled at Jasper for 18 years. “‘You have five hours to evacuate’ is basically what (the message) said. It was definitely a little bit panicked.”

“When we heard we had to head west, we went to Sun Peaks (B.C.) as my parents live there.

“There were no hotel vacancies along the way in Valemount, Clearwater or Avola. We arrived in Valemount at 4:15 a.m. and got to Sun Peaks just before 8:00 a.m. It was an epic journey!”

While the Olson and Fraser homes survived the fire, Olson’s businesses suffered terrible damage.

The Curling News thanks Hilary Olson for sharing such difficult images.

The volunteer-run Jasper Curling Club was in the midst of lounge renovations prior to the evacuation.

“We’re unsure how long our lounge will be out of commission as these renovations will obviously be pushed back,” said Fraser. “I’m hoping we’re okay regarding smoke damage as there were no outside windows.

“The municipality is occupied with getting the community safely back in order so we haven’t asked questions about the state of our club.

“We have heard word that our icemaker still has a home and is interested in continuing working for us in Jasper.”

“This year marks our 100th year of curling in Jasper,” said Olson. “It’s a big deal and our club is excited to celebrate this as soon as we can.”

Fraser echoed that determination.

“The truth is, sports and activities like ours will be very important this year to keep the community connected and active, and to bring traffic to the town,” Fraser said.

“Therefore we have every intention to have it up and running no matter the obstacles, once we have the capacity to do so.”