Armed Forces to provide update on fatal CFB Wainwright brush fire

The Canadian Armed Forces are set to provide an update about the Saturday brush fire at CFB Wainwright that resulted in the deaths of four soldiers and injured 39 others.

General Jennie Carignan, chief of defence staff, along with Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, commander of the 1st Canadian Division and a representative from the Canadian Forces Military Police Group, will be speaking at 3 p.m. on Thursday and will take questions from the media.

It will be the second formal news conference from CAF officials in the five days since a deadly fire broke out at the military base around 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

Those killed in the incident were Pte. Aidan Goulding, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Hayden Lykkemark with the Third Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Infantry and Sgt. Morgan Wong with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment.

As of Wednesday, Premier Danielle Smith said 13 of the injured remain in critical condition.

Rutland had confirmed that at the time of the fire, a training activity for the 3PPCLI had been underway. He said it was high-intensity combat training with live munitions.

The training was prepping soldiers for two roles — the Global Response Task Force and for a deployment to Latvia in the spring. It was the Charlie Company, comprised of around 84 soldiers, that was impacted.

Rutland said the fire began a kilometre away when the wind shifted. The size of the fire wasn’t known, but Rutland had said range control was aware of it for several hours and was monitoring it.

He also said that the weather for the majority of Saturday was within standard protocol, with winds well below 50 kilometres per hour.

The exact cause of the fire is still unknown, but Rutland has said it wasn’t believed to be related to oil and gas facilities. Determining the initial cause of the fire would take at least a month, Rutland also said.

Carignan has confirmed there are three separate investigations from military and civilian bodies underway. One of those is a formal board of inquiry investigation from the CAF, which can take between nine months and one year to complete.

Carignan committed to making the findings public.

— More to come

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