Fire at Canadian military base kills at least four, injures dozens

A major fire at a military base in the province of Alberta has killed four Canadian armed service members and caused dozens of casualties, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a briefing on Sunday.

Military and civilian crews battled the blaze throughout the night on Saturday as fierce winds whipped flames beyond Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Wainwright, one of the busiest military training bases, into the surrounding rural area.

“The nation is in mourning for those brave members of our armed forces whom we have lost,” Carney said on Sunday, adding that the incident was “one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil and in peacetime”.

Emergency resources were mobilised from across Alberta and nearby provinces.

Aerial ambulance crews from the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS), a Canadian nonprofit, flew in from Edmonton and from Saskatoon in Canada’s Prairies region.

Victims were reportedly transported to the Alberta cities of Wainwright, Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary, where medical professionals tended to the injured.

“Canadians come together in crisis. That is the best of our country,” Carney added on Sunday, praising crews who risked their lives “to protect their fellow Canadians” overnight.

The prime minister also noted that senior officials, including Canada’s defence and emergency preparedness ministers and Canadian Army Major-General Wade Rutland, would brief reporters from Wainwright on Sunday afternoon as officials work to establish the full scale of the tragedy.

The death toll may still rise. The Canadian television broadcaster Global News had previously reported at least seven people were killed in the fire, citing unnamed military sources.

“I cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory,” said Minister of National Defence David McGuinty on Saturday, adding that the situation was “very, very active and delicate”.

Global News reported that a gas line or a gas well was hit during a live-fire training, causing an explosion that sparked the blaze.

The Municipal District of Wainwright said the fire crossed the base’s fence and spread rapidly in high winds.

A doctor at a hospital in Edmonton, 180km (112 miles) northwest of the base, told Canada’s national broadcaster on Saturday that some casualties had been taken to hospitals across the city after healthcare facilities around the base were “completely overwhelmed” by the number of people needing care.

“This number of patients would overwhelm the city of Edmonton,” Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, told CBC News.

“It is more patients than any of us want to count right now. It’s a disaster. It’s a one in every 15-to-25-year disaster.”

Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said he spoke to Carney and McGuinty to offer support. “Pray for Wainwright, everyone,” he wrote on social media, urging people in the area to follow emergency instructions and keep roads clear for first responders.

The weekend fire erupted days before a Monday vote on whether Alberta, home to about five million people, should begin the legal process towards seceding from Canada.

Carney has opposed the push for secession, which is non-binding at present but would lead to a binding vote later on.

In his address on Sunday, he praised Alberta for its fortitude in the face of crisis. “The people of Wainwright are taking care of their own,” Carney added on Sunday.

He also pledged that the government would care for the wounded throughout their recovery and stand by members of the armed forces as they grieve.

“Those we lost, those who were injured, were training to defend Canada — to serve Canada. And now Canada serves them,” said Carney.