Four members of the Canadian military have died and dozens were injured in a major fire at a base in the province of Alberta.
Addressing the nation on Sunday from Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney described it as “one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil in peacetime”.
The fire broke out at about 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Saturday at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, one of the country’s busiest military training bases, and is now contained. Its cause is still unclear, but officials said it did not appear tied to “terrorist activity”.
“The nation is in mourning for those brave members of our armed forces who we have lost,” said Carney.
Of the 39 injured people being cared for in hospital, at least 19 are in a critical condition, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said at a press briefing on Sunday evening.
Members of the infantry had been conducting “high-intensity combat training with live munitions” at a grenade range and attack range, where 10 soldiers practise attacking a simulated enemy, Maj-Gen Wade Rutland told reporters at the briefing.
“There was a multitude of ordnance moving through the Wainwright training area,” he said, including a grenade launcher, grenades, small arms and ammunition.
A grass fire ignited about 1km (0.6 miles) away, with the cause currently under investigation, and moved toward the attack range.
“What I would say is there was multiple training activities happening throughout the training area at the time,” he said. “Uncommonly strong winds caused the fire to spread rapidly and shift direction towards the range administrative area.”
News then came through that local emergency services had been deployed to an “all hands on deck” situation.
Carney said military and emergency crews fought the flames throughout the night in “some of the worst conditions imaginable”.
The people who were hurt were on the attack range and included reservists and soldiers from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, officials said.
In a statement early on Sunday, the Canadian Armed Forces said that “while the incident remains under investigation, at this time, there are no indications that it was the result of any terrorist activity”.
Rutland told the briefing: “We do not believe this [incident] to be a result of any oil and gas infrastructure nor any outside interference”.
