On Saturday, October 17, a fast moving brush fire overcame a group of 84 soldiers from C Company 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry who were training at the Wainwright Canadian Forces base. Four soldiers were killed and at least 19 others suffered critical injuries. Thirty nine were hospitalized.
An investigation is underway by the military. The impression I get is that a training exercise was underway while what seemed to be a small grass fire burned nearby. The wind picked up and drove the fire towards the practicing soldiers, overwhelming them in seconds. It is unclear if any activities from the training had anything to do with the fire itself or if it was just misfortune that started the fire.
I am saddened by the loss of any Canadian soldiers and am thinking kind thoughts for the swift recovery of those who have been injured. I hope and expect that any lessons that can be learned from this event are taken to heart and guide future training exercises. Certainly one thing that can be learned is that training near a brush fire of any size is dangerous.
We had a gust front move through and the wind went from zero to 100kph in seconds. I had the alarm go off on my phone, and as I was looking at the weather app the tree started bashing on the house.
Very much the conditions that have taken out small towns like Lahaina in Maui. And it is reported that the fire got blown into the base buildings and even potentially threatening the town.
Now a grass fire will blow past and can do relatively little damage. You can run through the flames of a grass fire. What I am interested in finding out is were they in a grassy open area, or woods? Were the troops in buildings or vehicles? Where there munitions, fuel or other similar items involved that increased the lethality?
I’m not expecting that anyone did anything wrong, but clearly some combination of circumstances occured that people were not prepared for.