Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 39 people injured, many of them in critical condition, after a fast-moving fire tore through a live-ammunition training exercise at CFB Wainwright on Saturday, in what the town’s mayor called the largest mass-casualty event the community has seen.
National Defense said the fire ignited within the base’s training area at about 4 p.m. local time on Oct. 17 and spread rapidly beyond its boundaries, while military and civilian emergency crews moved to contain it.
Early internal military assessments indicate the blaze began as a smouldering grass fire that high winds whipped into a “wall of flame.”
According to the Globe and Mail, winds of more than 130 kilometers per hour sent it raging out of control in less than a minute, and it descended on a group of soldiers taking part in a live-fire exercise. A Canadian Armed Forces memo said fire risk was low before a sudden wind shift.
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The four dead were soldiers based out of CFB Edmonton. Nineteen others were in critical condition and about 20 more were being treated at Alberta hospitals for serious burns and other wounds. Early reports citing military sources had put the death toll at seven, but defense officials later confirmed four service members died.
Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh said the local hospital served as a triage center and called it the largest mass-casualty event the community has ever seen. He told CBC he had heard the usual cannon and weapons fire from the base before it went quiet and the fire department was activated.
The fire also crossed the base fence. The Municipal District of Wainwright said the fire south of town had crossed the fence and was being actively managed, and later said it was being held. Authorities have not established what caused it.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that Canada is in “mourning.” Premier Danielle Smith called it a “significant and tragic fire,” and King Charles was among leaders who expressed sympathy. Alberta hospitals activated mass-casualty protocols.
The base, about 200 kilometers southeast of Edmonton, is one of the army’s busiest training sites. Previous deaths there include a British soldier killed in a live-ammunition drill in 2000 and a Canadian soldier killed when a lookout tower collapsed in 2014.
