A blaze at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright that killed four soldiers and wounded dozens with severe burns and other injuries began as a smouldering grass fire that was whipped into a “wall of flame” by high winds, according to internal military communications and officials.
Major-General Wade Rutland, Commander of the army’s 1st Canadian Division, told reporters in Edmonton on Sunday that “uncommonly strong winds” caused a fire, which he said officials believed was contained, to shift rapidly toward personnel in the base’s training area that were part of live-fire exercises.
“The fire was a kilometre away when the wind shifted,” Maj.-Gen. Rutland said. “It is not normal for a fire to move a kilometre in 30 to 60 seconds.”
Firefighters work on hot spots after a deadly blaze killed four people and injured dozens more at CFB Wainwright in Alberta.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
The Department of National Defence said the incident happened around 4 p.m., Mountain Time on Saturday at the base, located about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.
The base is used as a combat and live-fire training ground for troops about to go overseas. Officials said the soldiers who died were among those training for deployment to Latvia. It has not yet been determined whether a live-fire exercise was the cause of the fire.
Environment Canada had forecast extreme wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres an hour in the Wainwright area on Saturday afternoon and later issued a wind alert. A wildfire had been burning for hours on the base before it swiftly changed direction, officials said.
Maj.-Gen. Rutland declined to explain when asked by JOBFlocks what policies or rules are in place about whether exercises proceed in high winds, though he said soldiers rely on base range control and weather reports to decide if they should continue training. He said some exercises on the base do proceed in high winds.
The army is expected to convene a board of inquiry to investigate what happened. Boards of inquiry don’t assign blame but rather make recommendations to prevent similar incidents.
Maj.-Gen. Rutland said the deceased were all Edmonton-based members serving with the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He identified them as Sergeant Morgan Wong of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, Private Shaun Farrell, Private Aidan Goulding and Private Hayden Lykkemark.
DND said 39 personnel were injured.
In town linked closely to base, shocked residents of Wainwright react to grim news
Dr. Sayeh Zielke, interim CEO of Acute Care Alberta, the public agency managing the emergency medical response, said there are 19 patients in critical condition; eight patients are stable; and 12 patients are “ambulatory and receiving care for injuries that can be assessed and intervened upon without admission.” This means they are receiving care for injuries that do not require hospital admission.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said a number of wounded have serious burns. “We know that the road ahead, especially for those who are suffering from severe burn injuries, will be long, requiring weeks and months of intensive and specialized care,” she told reporters.
Asked whether live-fire exercises might have sparked the initial blaze, Maj.-Gen. Rutland could not say.
“There was a multitude of ordnance moving through the Wainwright training area yesterday. Grenade launchers, grenades, small arms, ammunition,” he said. “Quite frankly, it could have been any of that or none of it.”
Internal military communications obtained by The Globe, dated Sunday, offer more details. The report describes the initial fire as “smouldering” and said it “blew over 1 kilometre” before a “wall of flame” engulfed the “administration area of the live fire training range.”
This report also suggested that so far, the military had not found any evidence yet linking the incident to munitions or natural-gas infrastructure.
“At this point, there is no indication of any explosion involving ammunition or oil and gas infrastructure,” the report said.
The Alberta Energy Regulator issued a statement on Sunday that said it hadn’t received any report that oil and gas infrastructure was affected.
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed four people were killed in a 'violent, fast-moving fire' at the military base.
Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a statement on Parliament Hill Sunday, said those affected by the fire came from military bases across the country, including reservists and soldiers from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
He called the incident “one of the worst tragedies that our Armed Forces have experienced on Canadian soil in peacetime.”
Another internal military communication issued Saturday night and obtained by The Globe tells Forces officials that the “fire index” for CFB Wainwright, a measure of risk, “was low.”
However, the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, which tracks fire danger and an indicator called the Fire Weather Index, showed both measures were very high or extreme near Wainwright on Saturday afternoon. Data also showed forest and grassland vegetation as being very dry.
Environment Canada data show that strong wind gusts picked up around 2 p.m. MT and reached a peak at 4 p.m. MT, around the same time the military says the incident happened. Hourly data show gusts of 69 kilometres per hour at that time, with the maximum gust for the day clocking in at 82 kilometres an hour.
What we know so far about the fire at CFB Wainwright
Earlier in the day, the weather agency had predicted such weather. Forecasts issued at 5 a.m. MT and 11 a.m. MT called for wind gusts in the afternoon of up to 80 kilometres an hour. By the afternoon, the weather agency had issued a yellow alert for much of the province, including Wainwright, warning of gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour.
Maj.-Gen. Rutland said 84 soldiers were training in the vicinity of the incident. He said they were preparing for roles in Canada’s Global Reserve Task Force which is “ready to move within hours to any hot spot in the world.” They were also preparing for a deployment to Canada’s Latvian mission on NATO’s eastern flank.
Asked what the military’s rules were for training in high winds, Maj.-Gen. Rutland said the protocols for this were in safety manual 381. The Department of National Defence was unable to immediately point to where in the manual it outlines procedures for training in high winds, in severe weather or near burning wildfires.
The commander said before the grass fire shifted Saturday, the base had been watching it. “Range control knew there was a fire for several hours,” he told reporters. He said it was decided that training “could carry on for a certain amount of time” because the fire appeared contained.
DND said Sunday there’s no evidence so far that the Wainwright fire was caused by terrorism.
“While the incident remains under investigation, at this time, there are no indications that it was the result of any terrorist activity,” spokeswoman Andrée-Anne Poulin said.