Four Canadian service members were killed and dozens more seriously injured after a fire broke out during a military training exercise at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday, calling it one of the country’s worst peacetime military tragedies on domestic soil.
The fire began Saturday afternoon and was pushed rapidly by high winds, spreading beyond the base into surrounding rural land. Canadian military officials said there was no indication the fire was an act of terrorism, though the cause remains under investigation.
Carney, in a televised address, said the families of the four service members who died had been notified and that the situation was still developing.
Among those affected were reservists and soldiers from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, one of Canada’s oldest regiments. Personnel had traveled to Wainwright from bases across the country for the training exercise.
Defense Minister David McGuinty confirmed fatalities and injuries but declined to give a precise casualty count.
“I cannot recall such an incident in my short time for sure as a minister, but I cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory,” McGuinty told reporters.
The full extent of the injuries remained unclear Sunday, with the wounded being treated at hospitals in Wainwright, Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary. Several Alberta hospitals activated a “Code Orange,” the emergency designation used for mass-casualty events, as staff worked to handle the influx of patients.
“This number of patients would overwhelm the city of Edmonton,” Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at Royal Alexandra Hospital, told CBC News. “It is more patients than any of us want to count right now. It’s a disaster.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said officers responded to reports of a fire in a training area at the base shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday. Firefighters fought the blaze through gusts reaching up to 62 mph as flames pushed past the installation’s boundaries.
By late Saturday, local officials said the fire was being held and that property and critical infrastructure had been protected. No evacuation order was issued for nearby residents.
McGuinty said the RCMP is involved in investigating the incident, describing the situation as “very, very active and delicate.”
Carney ordered flags lowered to half-staff on federal buildings nationwide to honor those killed and injured, and he praised the emergency crews who fought the fire through the night.
