I was surprised to find beauty in the aftermath of the Jasper fire [Video]

This First Person article is written by Ted Bishop, who lives in Edmonton. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

We evacuated west in a conga line of cars and trucks to Valemount, B.C., not knowing if our old log cabin on Lake Edith outside of Jasper, Alta., was already in flames.

Three weeks later, after the wildfire had ripped through the Jasper townsite, my 13-year-old son Thomas and I went up to check the damage, wondering if all would be ash.

The west side of the townsite looked as if the homes had not just been burned but bombed. Out at our cabin though, flying embers had scorched the grass to within five metres of the cabin. The main fire had not reached us.

We rode our bikes to the old Maligne Lake road to where the main fire had raged. Just 300 metres from the …