WAINWRIGHT: Four soldiers were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a military base in Alberta province, one of the worst peacetime tragedies to hit Canada's armed forces on home soil, prime minister Mark Carney said Sunday.
Carney made the solemn announcement without providing details on what caused the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Saturday.
"It is with deep sadness that I can confirm, at this time, that four service members have lost their lives and that their loved ones have been notified," Carney said in the capital Ottawa, adding that "dozens of others have been seriously injured."
"This is one of the worst tragedies the Canadian Armed Forces have experienced on Canadian soil in peacetime," he said.
A doctor at a hospital in the city of Edmonton, about 200km (110 miles) northwest of the base, told public broadcaster CBC that Wainwright's healthcare facilities were "completely overwhelmed" by the number of patients requiring care.
"It is more patients than any of us want to count right now," Warren Thirsk said. "It's a disaster. It's a one-in-15 to 25-year disaster."
According to the department of national defence, the fire broke out around 4pm local time (2200 GMT) Saturday in the base's training area.
The Municipal District of Wainwright posted on social media that the fire had "spread rapidly due to high winds."
It said later on Saturday that the blaze was "being held at this time", though firefighting crews would continue to monitor the area.
"Military and civilian crews fought this fire throughout the night in some of the worst conditions imaginable, risking their lives to protect their fellow Canadians," Carney said.
The Wainwright base is one of the largest bases operated by the Canadian Armed Forces and it regularly hosts training exercises involving military personnel from Nato countries.
"We will care for the injured through every step of their recovery," Carney said.
"And we will stand by the women and men of our armed forces as they bear the weight of this loss, they will not carry it alone because in Canada we take care of one another."
The fire disrupted advance voting ahead of Monday's vote on whether to begin the process toward a future referendum on Alberta's independence from Canada.
Alberta's office responsible for overseeing provincial elections said the advance voting station in Wainwright had closed.