{"id":2940,"date":"2026-10-19T12:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2940"},"modified":"2026-10-19T12:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:04:12","slug":"grass-fire-kills-four-canadian-soldiers-leaves-19-critically-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2940","title":{"rendered":"Grass fire kills four Canadian soldiers, leaves 19 critically ill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Flames that killed four Canadian soldiers and left 19 people \u200bin critical condition began with a smouldering grass fire that quickly grew in an Alberta base\u2019s training area where \u200cpersonnel were carrying out exercises, officials said on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials said 39 people were in hospitals as a result of the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, which Prime Minister Mark Carney described as one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada\u2019s military on home soil.<\/p>\n

Winds up to 96 kilometres per hour fed the \u200bblaze, which began around 4pm MDT on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But they were below 50km per hour leading up \u200bto the fire, Major General Wade Rutland told reporters at a news conference.<\/p>\n

He described the sudden high winds \u2060and resulting spread of the fire as an \u201cuncommon, rapid\u201d event in which the flames advanced 1 km in 30 to 60 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve certainly \u200bnever seen anything like it,\u201d said Rutland, commander of 1st Canadian Division, which is based in Edmonton, about 210 km west of the military \u200bsite.<\/p>\n

Officials identified the dead as Sergeant Morgan Wong, Private Shaun Farrell, Private Aidan Goulding and Private Hayden Lykkemark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nation is in mourning for those brave members of our Armed Forces whom we have lost,\u201d Carney said on Sunday, adding that he had ordered flags on federal buildings across the country to be lowered to \u200bhalf-staff to honour the victims.<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said many of the injured will require \u201cweeks and months\u201d of specialised, intensive medical care.<\/p>\n

When the \u200bfire began, Rutland said, 85 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia\u2019s Canadian Light Infantry, were in \u201chigh intensity\u201d combat training using live munitions at the base, \u200cwhich is \u2060located in a prairie setting.<\/p>\n

The soldiers were preparing for deployment to Latvia, where Canadian forces currently have their largest international military operation.<\/p>\n

Rutland said the incident remains under investigation and declined to speculate on what caused the grass fire.<\/p>\n

Officials do not believe the region\u2019s extensive oil and gas infrastructure had anything to do with the incident, he said. He also ruled out \u201coutside interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

CFB Wainwright had 1,310 military and civilian personnel \u200bstationed there as of 2021, according \u200bto census data.<\/p>\n

The base \u2060houses the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre, which runs training scenarios and exercises for the army.<\/p>\n

Carney said those affected in Saturday\u2019s fire came from military bases across the country.<\/p>\n

Military and civilian firefighters fought the fire \u200bthrough the night in \u201csome of the worst conditions imaginable,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two ground ambulances and eight air ambulances \u200bresponded to the \u2060scene, Smith said. Patients are being treated in Edmonton, Wainwright, Calgary and Red Deer.<\/p>\n

Military search and rescue technicians also parachuted into the site, Rutland said.<\/p>\n

Health staff in Edmonton said a \u201ccode orange,\u201d or mass-casualty event, was declared to coordinate the medical response for patients being transported from Wainwright.<\/p>\n

The town of \u2060Wainwright, with \u200ba population of about 6,600, is just north of the base.<\/p>\n

The municipality posted on \u200bsocial media that the fire had crossed the base fence into the nearby district, but no evacuation orders had been issued.<\/p>\n

It said on Sunday that the fire is \u200bnot expected to spread beyond its current boundaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flames that killed four Canadian soldiers and left 19 people \u200bin critical condition began with a smouldering grass fire that quickly grew in an Alberta base\u2019s training area where \u200cpersonnel were carrying out exercises, officials said on Sunday. Officials said 39 people were in hospitals as a result of the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, which Prime Minister Mark Carney described as one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada\u2019s military on home soil. Winds up to 96 kilometres per hour fed the \u200bblaze, which began around 4pm MDT…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}