Stopping the Infernos: Alberta After the Jasper Fire

Residents of Jasper Alberta are finally returning to the town that made international headlines after it was devastated by a monster wildfire in July.

Nearly a third of the town was damaged or destroyed, and the spot is currently closed to tourists for the foreseeable future.

How do we prevent climate change disasters in the future? It’s complicated, according former Alberta Firefighter Matt Rieger, who spent years on the front lines battling blazes while stationed at bases across the province.

Rieger joins host Stephen Magusiak to talk about the cost, the manpower problems, and the scale of effort it would take to meaningfully mitigate the risk as these fires get worse and more frequent.

We also discuss misconceptions online about the causes and the response effort following the disaster.