OTTAWA, July 26 (Reuters) - A massive wildfire that

destroyed about a third of the western Canadian tourist town of

Jasper is still out of control but rain and cooler conditions

are helping firefighters, authorities said on Friday.

Jasper is in the middle of Alberta's mountainous Jasper

National Park, a major tourist attraction. The town and park,

which draw more than 2 million tourists a year to this area of

the Rocky Mountains, were evacuated on Monday.

"Rain and cooler temperatures and the incredibly hard work

of firefighters have resulted in fire activity that is

significantly subdued," said Alberta premier Danielle Smith.

"It is important to note that the fire is still out of

control, and it remains unsafe for people to return," she told a

press conference.

Parks Canada said between 10 mm and 15 mm (0.39 and 0.59

inch) of rain had fallen on Thursday and would most likely keep

fire behavior low until into the weekend.

Jasper town council said that out of a total of 1,113

structures within the town, 358 - or over 32% - had been

destroyed.

David Leoni, one of the thousands of people evacuated, said

his family lost the house they had been living in for 10 years.

"Even a day and a half on from that I'm still feeling very

shocked," he told CTV television.

"I will gladly go back in to see what remains ... for me

psychologically it's - I think it's good to have some closure

and to see for myself what it's like."

CN Rail, one of the country's two largest rail companies,

resumed the movement of goods through Jasper National Park on

Friday after the fire forced it to suspend operations.

CN remains in regular contact with officials and is

monitoring weather and fire movements, it said in a statement.

Officials estimated that when the evacuation order was

given, there were up to 10,000 people in the town and a further

15,000 visitors in the park.

Late on Thursday, authorities said crews had managed to

protect all of Jasper's critical infrastructure. This included

the hospital, schools and a wastewater treatment plant.

The blaze also damaged a number of bridges around the town

and in the park, they added.

The Jasper Park Lodge, one of the largest hotels in town,

said it had suffered some damage but most structures remained

standing and intact. The 400-room residence is run by Fairmont,

a group owned by France's Accor.

The Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which can carry 890,000

barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Edmonton to Vancouver, runs

through the park. The operator said on Thursday there were no

signs of damage.

The federal government said in April that high temperatures

and tinder-dry forests meant this could be a catastrophic year

for wildfires in Canada.

The current fire could be one of the most damaging in

Alberta since a 2016 blaze that hit the oil town of Fort

McMurray, forcing the evacuation of all 90,000 residents and

destroying 10% of all structures there.

(Additional reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia and

Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Ros Russell

and Sandra Maler)