'I felt something was wrong': Wainwright Mayor says town reeling in wake of base tragedy

Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh said the community has long been used to big booms from training exercises at the base.

“It is a training base, and so there is live ammunition. There’s lots of cannons firing rounds. It’s not uncommon for our windows to shake or perhaps the plates to rattle in your cupboards when they’re training,” he said.

“It would be one of those parts of our day in living here in Wainwright, so nothing out of the ordinary,” he said.

Then late Saturday afternoon, he got a notification—the fire department was responding to an incident on the base, and they were calling for support from other organizations.

“Then I felt something was wrong,” Pugh said.

There were strong winds ripping through northern Alberta on Saturday, which might not have helped but would have been something the base was equipped to deal with, he said.

“The military are so incredibly well trained and professional that if there was danger of (winds), the exercise wouldn’t have proceeded if there was a fear of that,” Pugh said.

Pugh told Postmedia his heart went out to everyone involved as the tragedy unfolded.

“I feel for the members, the family members and the CAF colleagues who are in mourning. I feel for our first responders, and I feel for our hospital,” he said.

Pugh said he was proud of the community, staff and armed forces.

“What amazing human beings they are,” he said, noting the community has received widespread outpourings of support from across Canada and around the world.

“The first question is, ‘what can I do?’ And it helps you realize humanity wins and rises even amongst any differences,” Pugh said.

Since Wainwright is a training base, the number of those stationed there permanently is smaller, but there’s an interconnectedness between military and the larger community.

“Many of our members serving on the base live in our communities. They’re part of social organizations. Their kids play on the same sports teams, attend schools, rec facilities. We have incredible collaboration between the base and the town and the (municipal district) as well.

“We have the benefit in Wainwright of recognizing and living and working alongside our military members,” he said.

“My neighbor across the street is from Quebec City. My neighbor beside me is a former member from Montreal. It galvanizes us because we have perceptions and political beliefs, and we have that benefit of people coming from across Canada, and many of them choosing to stay in Wainwright when they retire, and I feel it makes us better,” he said.

It’s been a grueling day of grief and crisis in Wainwright, but as he returned home, Pugh was reminded again of the importance of community.

“I get home and I get a hug from my kids and I start to realize ‘okay this is what’s happened and I have to process,’ And that’s where I I see that that stainless steel, that strength of our community and surrounding area that I talked about rising. You know that’s what’s the essence of humanity is,” Pugh said.

“I can’t promise you’re not going to have to do hard things, but I can promise you’re not going to have to go through it alone.We’re not big enough to go it alone, we have to work together. I use the metaphor of different fingers in the same hand.”

Pugh said volunteer first responders returned Sunday morning to the scene of the fire that had escaped the base boundaries to watch for hotspots and flare-ups.

He said he couldn’t recall a similar incident at the base, although there was a Hercules aircraft crash decades ago.

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