Four Soldiers Dead, Dozens Injured in Canada Military Base Fire

Four soldiers were killed, and dozens injured in a fire at a military base in Alberta, western Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Sunday.

Carney made the announcement without providing details on what caused the fire at the Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Saturday.

He said the families of the four deceased personnel had been notified, while dozens of others sustained serious injuries.

“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 the capital Ottawa. 

“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 Canada’s Department of National Defence, the fire broke out at approximately 4:00 pm local time on Saturday in the base’s training area.

Major General Wade Rutland said the soldiers were participating in an outdoor exercise on the Alberta prairie when the flames advanced unexpectedly.

“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,” he added.

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 attributed the fire’s rapid spread to strong winds.

Carney praised military personnel and civilian firefighters who battled the blaze overnight, acknowledging the dangerous conditions they faced while protecting others.

“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.

Canadian Forces Base Wainwright is one of the country’s largest military installations and regularly hosts training exercises involving personnel from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, expressed condolences to the bereaved families and wished those injured a full recovery.

He noted that Canadian troops and allied forces regularly train together at Wainwright for demanding military operations, adding that NATO’s 32 allied chiefs of defence stood in solidarity with Canada and its armed forces.

“Wainwright is where Canadian soldiers, and so many Allies with them, train for the hardest tasks of our profession,” Cavo Dragone said.  

“All 32 Allied Chiefs of Defence stand with you and the Canadian Armed Forces.”

The scale of the emergency also placed pressure on nearby medical facilities.

Warren Thirsk, a doctor at a hospital in Edmonton, approximately 200 kilometres from the base, told public broadcaster CBC that Wainwright’s healthcare facilities had been overwhelmed by the influx of injured personnel.

Carney pledged continued support for those recovering from their injuries and for members of the armed forces coping with the deaths of their colleagues.

“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 incident also disrupted advance voting in Wainwright ahead of Monday’s ballot on whether to begin the process towards a possible future referendum on Alberta’s independence from Canada.

The provincial office responsible for overseeing elections confirmed that the advance voting station in Wainwright had been closed following the fire.