Wainwright base explosion kills at least 7, dozens hurt

The Wainwright base explosion killed at least seven people and injured dozens on Saturday afternoon after a live-fire training exercise reportedly struck a natural gas line on one of Canada's busiest army training bases, according to Global News. The blast tore through a training area at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta shortly after four p.m. local time, igniting a fire that fierce winds carried beyond the base fence. The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed the fire spread past the training area, and Defence Minister David McGuinty confirmed fatalities and injuries while declining to release an official casualty count. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating what happened.

Multiple military sources told Global News the round hit a gas line or gas well, setting off the explosion and the fire that followed. Canadian military authorities have not publicly confirmed that account. The fire spread rapidly because of high winds, according to the Municipal District of Wainwright, with gusts approaching one hundred kilometres an hour driving flames across the base perimeter into the surrounding district. Firefighters from several jurisdictions joined the effort to contain it, and no evacuation order had been issued by Saturday evening as investigators began piecing together the sequence behind the Wainwright base explosion.

The Municipal District of Wainwright said emergency responders were actively assessing the situation and working to protect people, property and critical infrastructure, warning the public to stay away from the area around the Wainwright base explosion, according to a district post cited by People magazine.

Officials confirm fatalities as hospitals fill up

In Ottawa, McGuinty told reporters the Canadian Armed Forces, the Department of National Defence, Public Safety and partners across the federal government were working with the Alberta government and municipal governments to mobilize every available support. He described the situation as very active and delicate, said he could not recall an incident like it in recent memory, and promised more information in the coming hours and days. Prime Minister Mark Carney called it a serious incident creating a major fire and said his thoughts were with the women and men affected.

The medical response points to a large casualty count. Wainwright's health centre was quickly overwhelmed, so ambulances carried patients more than two hundred kilometres northwest to Edmonton, where hospitals declared a Code Orange, the disaster protocol for mass-casualty events. The injured are being treated at the University of Alberta Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital, CBC News reported. Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency physician at Royal Alexandra, told the broadcaster the city was receiving more patients than staff could readily count and called it a disaster he believed Edmonton might see once in a generation. For more details, see The Times' report on the Wainwright fire.

Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh called the Wainwright base explosion the largest mass casualty event the town has ever seen, according to media reports. STARS air ambulance sent two aircraft, one from Edmonton and one from Saskatoon, and local officials asked residents to keep away from the Wainwright Health Centre unless they needed critical care. More scene reporting appears in People's account of the explosion and fire.

A base built for live-fire training

CFB Wainwright is described by CBC News as the principal base for live fire training exercises in Canada. Roughly a thousand military and civilian staff work on site on a regular day, according to the broadcaster. Alberta MP Dane Lloyd said he was hearing of significant casualties after the explosion and fire. The RCMP said officers had responded to early reports of a fire at a training area, and that its initial involvement was winding down while resources remained available if needed, according to a statement carried by the National Post.

The military said official casualty figures would not be released until families have been notified, so the full scale of the loss is still being assessed. The cause of the Wainwright base explosion remains under investigation, and the gas-line account from military sources has not been officially confirmed. The strain on Edmonton's hospitals and the shock in a town of several thousand that hosts one of Canada's largest army training centres tell the story of a community waiting for news, and of questions that will take days to answer.