Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said 39 patients were being treated in hospital after a fire broke out while soldiers trained at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, southeast of Edmonton. At least 19 of the injured were in critical condition. Patients were taken from Wainwright to four hospitals across the province.
Officials named the four soldiers who died: Sgt. Morgan Wong of Edmonton; Private Shaun Farrell of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; Private Aidan Goulding of North Vancouver; and Private Hayden Lykkemark of Langley, British Columbia. They served with the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and were preparing for deployment to Latvia next spring.
They were training on Saturday afternoon while a grass fire burned about a kilometre away. Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, commander of the 1st Canadian Division, said the fire had been judged far enough away and contained for training to continue. Violent winds then rose, he said, driving the fire toward the soldiers in about 30 seconds and overwhelming them. Officials do not yet know how the fire started, and Rutland said that could take weeks to determine. The Canadian Armed Forces said there was no indication of terrorist activity.
Prime Minister Mark Carney called the incident one of the worst peacetime tragedies for the Armed Forces on Canadian soil. He said the nation was in mourning, that flags on all federal buildings would be lowered to half-mast, and that family members of those who died were being notified. He asked the military for a public account later on Sunday in Alberta, with Defence Minister David McGuinty, Emergency Preparedness Minister Eleanor Olszewski, Rutland, Premier Smith, provincial ministers and senior officials.
The fire began about 4 p.m. Saturday in a training area at the base, about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, and spread beyond the base. Military and civilian crews fought the flames overnight. Carney said they put their lives at risk in some of the worst conditions imaginable. Gusts during a provincial windstorm reached 100 kilometres an hour.
Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh said he is used to the sound of artillery from the nearby base, but after windows rattled on Saturday everything went silent. Friends who are physicians and nurses then heard through personal channels that staff were being called to a mass-casualty event, followed by sirens and helicopters. Ambulances from across the region moved patients as far as Edmonton and Calgary. STARS air-ambulance aircraft came from Edmonton and Saskatoon. Just before midnight, Armed Forces medical personnel parachuted in under flare light; Pugh said they were collecting people and taking them to Edmonton and Calgary.
Pugh said the town of about 7,000 and the base are closely linked, with base members in local schools and on local sports teams. He expected church services and other commemorations in the coming days.
By 11 p.m. Saturday the Municipal District of Wainwright said the fire was being held, property and critical infrastructure were protected, and no evacuation order had been issued. A fire watch remained in place. Crews kept the fire from reaching the town. Late Saturday at least 10 ambulances were seen at the local health centre.
Acute Care Alberta said a Code Orange had been activated at several hospitals so care could be coordinated for many severely injured patients at once. It advised people in the Edmonton area to avoid the University of Alberta Hospital emergency department for non-emergencies, citing very few available emergency response units in the Edmonton area and limited acute capacity in several communities.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan called the fire a profoundly difficult event and offered condolences while identification and notification continued. McGuinty, travelling to Edmonton, said he could not recall a comparable incident in recent memory. Alberta Conservative MP Dane Lloyd wrote that there had been an explosion and a fire with significant casualties.
The fire also disrupted advance voting for Monday’s provincial referendum on whether Alberta should hold a binding separation vote. Elections Alberta said advance polls in Lloydminster and Vermilion closed early on Saturday and the ballots were transported securely.
CFB Wainwright is one of Canada’s busiest bases and is used mainly to train soldiers and prepare units for combat operations. Smith called the fire heartbreaking, thanked health workers, and said the province had convened its emergency management cabinet committee to coordinate the response.