Fire at Alberta base kills 4 Canadian soldiers training for NATO mission, injures dozens more

A grass fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright killed four Canadian soldiers and injured 39 others during training. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a podium on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Oct. 18, 2026. A grass fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright killed four Canadian soldiers and injured 39 others during training Saturday. ( Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press) Four Canadian soldiers were killed and 39 others injured when a fast-moving grass fire swept through a military training area in Alberta during a live-fire exercise, Canadian officials said. Nineteen of the injured were in critical condition, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said at a news conference Sunday, a day after the blaze. The soldiers were preparing to join a global response force capable of deploying within hours to crises around the world and to reinforce Canada’s NATO brigade in Latvia in the spring.

The four who died were identified as Sgt. Morgan Wong and Pvts. Shaun Farrell, Aidan Goulding and Hayden Lykkemark. The fire ignited around 4 p.m. Saturday inside a training area at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, where soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry were participating in an exercise, according to a statement by the country’s Department of National Defense. CFB Wainwright, about 130 miles southeast of Edmonton and 260 miles north of the Montana border,