Four soldiers were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a military base in Alberta, one of the worst peacetime tragedies to hit Canada’s armed forces on home soil, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday.
Carney made the solemn announcement without providing details on what caused the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Saturday.
“It is with deep sadness that I can confirm, at this time, that four service members have lost their lives and that their loved ones have been notified,” Carney said in Ottawa, adding that “dozens of others have been seriously injured.”
“This is one of the worst tragedies the Canadian Armed Forces have experienced on Canadian soil in peacetime,” he said.
Additionally, 19 were critically injured, eight were stable and 12 were ambulatory after being treated for injuries, officials told reporters at a news conference Sunday.
According to the Department of National Defence, the fire broke out around 4:00 p.m. local time Saturday in the base’s training area.
Major General Wade Rutland told reporters that during “an outdoor exercise on the Alberta prairie,” soldiers were caught off guard by the advancing flames.
“Within 30 seconds to a minute, they saw no fire, and then there was a fire on top of them,” Rutland said.
“The fire did originate within the training area and did cross established fire guards before being contained, in conjunction with municipal authorities,” Rutland said.
Rutland said it would be “at least a month” before he expected investigators to determine a cause, but responded to a suggestion circulating online that a hydrocarbon pipeline could have been hit by a munition.
“You may have heard reports of explosions. Certainly, we do not believe this to be as a result of any oil and gas infrastructure, nor any outside interference,” Rutland said, adding that initial inspections indicated no damage to gas and oil infrastructure “but we will definitely check.”
The Municipal District of Wainwright posted on social media that the fire had “spread rapidly due to high winds.”
“Military and civilian crews fought this fire throughout the night in some of the worst conditions imaginable, risking their lives to protect their fellow Canadians,” Carney said.
‘Every step’
The Wainwright base is one of the largest bases operated by the Canadian Armed Forces, and it regularly hosts training exercises involving military personnel from NATO countries.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO’s Atlantic alliance military committee, posted to X extending “deepest condolences” to those who lost family and wishing a “full recovery to all the injured.”
“Wainwright is where Canadian soldiers, and so many Allies with them, train for the hardest tasks of our profession,” Cavo Dragone said, adding that “all 32 Allied Chiefs of Defence stand with you and the Canadian Armed Forces.”
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Warren Thirsk, a doctor at a hospital in the city of Edmonton told CBC that Wainwright’s health care facilities were “completely overwhelmed” by the number of patients requiring care.
“We will care for the injured through every step of their recovery,” Carney said.
“And we will stand by the women and men of our armed forces as they bear the weight of this loss, they will not carry it alone because in Canada we take care of one another.”
The fire disrupted advance voting ahead of Monday’s vote on whether to begin the process toward a future referendum on Alberta’s independence from Canada.
Alberta’s office responsible for overseeing provincial elections said the advance voting station in Wainwright had closed.
