Canadian military caught in wildfire during training exercise, four dead as flames ‘move a kilometre in 36 seconds’

Canada’s military has clarified the bizarre and tragic events over the weekend that have left four soldiers dead and scores more hospitalized. The Canadian Armed Forces were reportedly conducting a large training exercise at one of Canada’s busiest military bases in Alberta when, in almost the blink of an eye, the soldiers found themselves in the middle of an inferno.

It was initially unclear what had happened, with initial rumors that a wayward high-explosive round had struck a gas well and detonated it. This does not now seem to be the case, with Maj Gen. Wade Rutland, commander of 1st Canadian Division saying (per The Guardian) that the cause was a grass fire that suddenly and unpredictably spread.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Maj Gen. Rutland explained that command had known for hours that there was a grass fire a kilometer away, but they considered it under control and so allowed training exercises to continue. Then conditions changed.

“I’ve certainly never seen anything like it.”

The wind shifted and brought the fire with it: “The fire was a kilometre away when the wind shifted. That is not normal for a fire to move a kilometre in 36 seconds. … I’ve certainly never seen anything like it.”

Around 84 soldiers were standing in the fire’s path, with four confirmed as being killed: Sgt Morgan Wong of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and Privates Shaun Farrell, Aidan Goulding and Hayden Lykkemark of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Many more were seriously injured, with 39 hospitalized and 19 of them in critical condition.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney dubbed the incident “one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil in peacetime” and added, “The nation is in mourning for those brave members of our armed forces whom we have lost. And I have asked the flags on all federal buildings to be flown at half-mast to honour them. … We are praying for the wounded.”

Dr Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, said that the incident should be treated as a disaster, stressing that facilities at the hospital were stretched to breaking point. Per CBC News (as reported by CBS): “This number of patients would overwhelm the city of Edmonton. … 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.”

Many aspects of the incident remain unclear, specifically the details of how a fire could spread so quickly without warning and what started it in the first place. Carney has requested a “detailed account” from military officials on the ground, which we hope will be made public as the story develops.