Four Canadian soldiers killed in fire during live-fire exercise at Alberta base

Cathy Keane, an Ontario mayoral candidate with family in the military, had her eldest son among the personnel critically injured in the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright.

Reservists and soldiers from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry had travelled from bases across Canada for a live-fire exercise at the base's Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre. At approximately 4pm on Saturday, a fire began in a training area at the Alberta base, which lies 180 to 210 kilometers from Edmonton.

Winds gusting at 96km/h to 100km/h drove the flames quickly across the landscape. The fire broke through the base fence and entered the nearby district and surrounding rural area.

Four service members died and dozens were seriously injured. Their families have been notified.

Casualties were taken to hospitals in Wainwright, Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary. The influx overwhelmed health-care facilities around the base, and Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton joined several hospitals across Alberta in activating Code Orange, a disaster-response protocol for high-casualty incidents.

Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at Royal Alexandra Hospital, called the influx “a one in every 15 to 25-year disaster”. He said there were “more patients than any of them wanted to count”.

Wainwright, a town of about 7,000 residents, found itself at the centre of a crisis beyond the capacity of its small hospital. Its mayor, Bruce Pugh, called it “a heavy day” for the community and said he believed the incident would become the area's largest-ever mass casualty event.

Prime Minister Mark Carney described the fire as “one of the worst peacetime tragedies for Canada's military on domestic soil” and said his thoughts were with the affected service members. Defence Minister David McGuinty confirmed the deaths and injuries, saying he could not recall a similar incident in recent memory. He described the situation as “very, very active and delicate” and travelled to Edmonton for a briefing.

Gen Jennie Carignan, Canada's chief of defence staff, said it was “a profoundly difficult moment for the Canadian Armed Forces”.

The cause of the fire remains unknown and is under investigation. A defence department spokeswoman told the BBC there were no indications that terrorist activity caused the incident.