Photo: NASA FIRMS / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 39 people were taken to hospital, 19 of them in critical condition, after a fast-moving grass fire swept through a live-fire training area at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta on Saturday afternoon, officials said on Sunday. Prime Minister Mark Carney called it one of the worst tragedies for the country’s armed forces on Canadian soil in peacetime.
The four who died
Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, commander of the 1st Canadian Division, named the dead as Sgt. Morgan Wong of Edmonton, Pte. Shaun Farrell of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, Pte. Aidan Goulding of North Vancouver and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark of Langley in British Columbia. All four belonged to the 3rd Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, and their families have been told.
Early unofficial reports on Saturday night had put the death toll higher. The official count released on Sunday is four. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said 39 patients were in hospital and at least 19 were critical. Doctors in Edmonton said they had prepared for a large number of burn patients.
What happened on the range
Rutland said the fire started at about 4 pm local time during high-intensity combat training with live munitions. Some soldiers were throwing hand grenades on one range while a 10-member section practised an attack on a simulated enemy nearby. The unit was preparing to serve as a rapid-response force that can deploy anywhere within hours, and for a deployment to Latvia next spring.
Officials have not said what lit the fire. Rutland said it could have been any part of the exercise, or none of it. A cold front moved through the area and very strong gusts pushed the flames about a kilometre in less than a minute, sweeping them into the section attack area, he said. Environment Canada had issued a wind warning for large parts of Alberta that day.
Rutland also said range control had known about a fire on the base for several hours, and a decision was taken that training could carry on for a time. He said whether the fire spread without the soldiers on the ground noticing will be part of the investigation, which he expects to take at least a month.
Within 30 seconds to a minute they saw no fire, and then there was a fire right on top of them.
Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, recounting what his commander told him
Some witnesses said they heard explosions. Rutland said there was no sign that oil or gas infrastructure at the site had been hit, and the Department of National Defence has said there is no indication of any terrorist activity.
A province-wide medical response
Alberta’s health system declared a ‘code orange’ mass-casualty response for 10 hours. Emergency services sent 30 units to Wainwright, including 22 ground ambulances and eight aircraft, with help from Saskatchewan. Patients were moved from the small Wainwright Health Centre to hospitals in Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary, and the University of Alberta Hospital, which has a burn unit, cleared space for burn patients.
What happens next
Carney has ordered flags on federal buildings to fly at half-mast and promised long-term support for the families and the injured. The military investigation will look at the cause of the fire, how it reached the soldiers and the decision to keep training going. Wainwright, about 200 km from Edmonton, is one of Canada’s largest army training bases. The tragedy comes days before Alberta votes in a referendum on starting a process that could lead to independence from Canada.
