One of two wildfires threatening Jasper National Park has reached the townsite.

Parks Canada, in a Facebook update on its Jasper National Park page  at 7:10 p.m., said the south fire came into the town thats home to 4,100 residents at 6:40 p.m.

It said responders from Alberta and other provinces are fighting the blaze and that firefighters are dealing with multiple structural fires and working to protect critical infrastructure.

6:40 p.m.: South fire reaches outskirts of town

One of two wildfires threatening Jasper has reached the southern outskirts of the Alberta Rockies community.

In an early evening statement, officials with Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper said the south fire, as of 6 p.m., was at the towns south limits by strong wind gusts from the south and southeast.

The statement said firefighters remain in the community to combat spot fires and maintain sprinkler lines.

The officials said 10-20 millimetres of rain is forecast to arrive in the next 24 hours, beginning later tonight.

If the area receives rain, it will help to reduce fire activity, said the statement from Parks Canada Incident Commander Katie Ellsworth and Municipality of Jasper Incident Commander Christine Nadon.

They said afternoon work to fight the fire by helicopter bucketing proved ineffective and that fireguard work by heavy equipment wasnt able to be completed before workers had to remove it from the fireline for safety reasons.

The officials said water bombers from Alberta were unable to help because of dangerous conditions.

They said an ignition specialist that came to Jasper to help complete landscape-level ignition in order to bring the fire to large holding features such as Highway 16 and Athabasca River has been prevented from doing the work due to unfavourable conditions. 

6:20 p.m.: Wildfire moving rapidly toward townsite

Albertas forestry minister is hopeful a wildfire threatening the townsite in Jasper National Park won’t hit the town under its full fury.

Todd Loewen, the provinces minister of forestry and parks, told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday evening the very aggressive fire is moving rapidly toward the town.

In these situations, the fire can change dramatically from one day to the next hour to the next, Loewen said.

There are a lot of crews on this fire, there are a lot of people working on it, but again, these things change quickly when it comes to the fire and that activity will change quickly, too.

The minister said the top priority is keeping people safe, not just for the people of Jasper, but also the first responders who are providing services to the first responders.

We’ve got some really good crews working on that, the best minds in the business, Loewen said.

Fire is fire, it’s going to do what it does, but we know with the proper management, we’re going to get the best out of it we can.

5:30 p.m.: First responders relocated to Hinton

Parks Canada has confirmed that first responders are being relocated to Hinton as a result of significant fire activity and forecasted strong winds.

Vehicles and heavy equipment have been seen leaving Jasper National Park throughout Wednesday afternoon.

The park and townsite were evacuated on Monday night, leaving only essential personnel and firefighters behind.

If you have not yet evacuated town you must leave now, Parks Canada wrote in a social media post. This is for your own safety and to allow these critical operations to protect the town of Jasper to continue unimpeded. This decision has not been made lightly.

The sky over the park has grown steadily darker throughout Wednesday afternoon as a result of wildfire smoke, and ash is raining from the sky.

CTV News Edmonton has reached out to Parks Canada and the province of Alberta for more information.