Canada confirms four service members dead and dozens seriously injured in the CFB Wainwright fire, and lowers flags across the country

Canada now has a confirmed number, and it is four. Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Sunday that four members of the Canadian Armed Forces were killed and dozens more seriously injured when a violent, fast moving fire tore through a training area at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta at about 4 in the afternoon on Saturday, October 17. The nation is in mourning, Carney said. We stand in solidarity and compassion for the families, the friends and the colleagues of all those affected by this tragedy. Canadians, he said, come together in crisis.

The confirmed toll replaces a night of fragments. On Saturday evening, Defence Minister David McGuinty confirmed fatalities and injuries but gave no count, and said he could not recall an incident like this in living memory. Global News, citing military sources, reported at least seven dead. That higher figure has not been officially confirmed, and the count Ottawa stands behind tonight is four, as of October 18. It is a confirmed toll, not a declared final one. The names of the dead have not been released. Carney said their families have been notified, and that the soldiers and reservists at the exercise had come from bases across the country, including the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. The injured are being treated in Wainwright, Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary.

What started the fire is still not established. The Armed Forces said it began in a training area and spread rapidly. Reports that an explosion during a live fire exercise struck a gas line or well remain unconfirmed. The RCMP is part of the investigation. Late on Saturday the fire crossed the base fence into the neighboring district, though no evacuation orders were issued, and by late evening local authorities said it was being held and nearby property protected.

Carney ordered Canadian flags lowered to half mast and directed national defence and emergency preparedness officials to deliver a detailed report on what happened. Wainwright, about 130 miles east of Edmonton, is one of the busiest training bases in the country, with about 1,300 military and civilian personnel stationed there as of 2021, serving a town of about 6,600 people. A training ground is where an army practices being in danger under controlled conditions. On Saturday the control failed, and four families have had the knock on the door that every military family knows is possible and none is ready for.

The picture with this story is an illustration, not a photograph.