WAINWRIGHT, Alberta — Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 39 people were injured, 19 of them critically, when a grass fire driven by ferocious winds swept through a live-fire training exercise at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Saturday, according to Reuters and the Associated Press.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told Parliament on Monday that the cause of the fire is still not known. Soldiers and reserve members were conducting live-fire exercises while a fire was burning in the training area, he said. “Driven by ferocious winds, the fire jumped nearly a kilometer in less than a minute to where soldiers were gathered,” Carney said, according to Reuters. He said 50 investigators from the army and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are on the ground to determine how the disaster happened. “This loss touches every corner of the nation,” he said.
The military identified the dead as Sergeant Morgan Wong, of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, serving with the battalion, and Privates Shaun Farrell, Aidan Goulding and Hayden Lykkemark, all of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton. Major General Wade Rutland told reporters that about 84 to 85 soldiers were split between a grenade range and an area for practising attacks on simulated enemy positions when the fire swept into the second zone. Officials had known about the fire for hours but believed it was sufficiently contained for training to continue, he said, before winds suddenly shifted. “The fire was a kilometre away when the wind shifted. That is not normal for a fire to move a kilometre in 36 seconds,” Rutland said, according to the AP.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said 19 of the injured are in critical condition and many will require weeks and months of specialised, intensive care. Health officials said the injured included patients who were stable and others treated as ambulatory with less serious injuries. Gusts in the region reached roughly 96 to 100 kilometres per hour on Saturday, toppling trees and pushing the blaze beyond firebreaks, according to officials.
The soldiers were preparing to deploy to Latvia, where Canada maintains its largest overseas military operation, reinforcing allied forces on NATO’s eastern flank, according to Reuters. King Charles, Canada’s monarch, said in a message that he and the Queen were “greatly shocked and saddened,” offering condolences to the families and the injured. Flags on federal buildings were lowered to half-mast, according to Canadian reporting.
Why it matters: Carney described the fire as one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada’s military on Canadian soil. The investigation will have to answer not only what ignited the grass fire but why live-fire training continued for hours while a fire burned in the training area — a question military officials have said will be examined transparently.
What happens next: the joint military and RCMP investigation continues, hospitals in Alberta continue treating 39 injured members, and Parliament is expected to return to the subject as investigators report. No final cause has been released. Read the Reuters report here.
