Grenade exercise sparked fire at Canada military base that killed four soldiers
A grenade launcher sparked a fire that killed four soldiers and wounded 39 others at a Canadian military base last weekend.
Troops from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and Army reservists were readying to deploy to Latvia, where Canadian forces have their largest international military operation, and were taking part in a drill using live grenades at the Wainwright base in Alberta.
“The fire initiated on the automatic grenade launcher range … [it] initiated as a result of routine military training that was happening on that range at the time,” Brigadier-General Vanessa Hanrahan told reporters on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
The incident, which happened at about 4pm local time on Saturday, is considered one of the worst peacetime tragedies in the history of Canadian military.
Flames broke out in a grassy training area as a result – spreading by a kilometre “in 30 to 60 seconds”.
Dozens of people in the base were caught in the fire’s path and subsequently trapped.
Major-General Wade Rutland said at a news conference in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, on Sunday: “The fire was a kilometre away when the wind shifted. That is not normal for a fire to move a kilometre in 36 seconds.”
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the inferno was driven by “ferocious winds”.
Firefighters stationed at the base knew the fire was happening, but could not tackle it because it was inside a “permanent danger area,” CBC Canada reported from a press conference.
There were fears that the automatic grenade launcher range was littered with unexploded ordnance (UXO), which could explode if stepped on.
Hanrahan explained that on this “restricted” fire teams’ ability to direct suppression efforts.
“This loss touches every corner of the nation,” Carney said earlier this week. At the time, the PM confirmed that 50 investigators had been deployed on the ground to determine what caused the tragedy.
Sgt Morgan Wong, Pte Shaun Farrell, Pte Aidan Goulding and Pte Hayden Lykkemark were identified as those killed in the inferno.
Officials said 27 people are still in hospital in serious condition. At least 13 of them are considered critical and are fighting for their lives. Another 12 have been treated and released.
