Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh says this year’s Remembrance Day will carry extra weight following a Oct. 17 fire at CFB Wainwright that killed four soldiers and injured 39 others.
The Story
Wainwright, Alta., is preparing for what Mayor Bruce Pugh called a particularly solemn Remembrance Day after a fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Oct. 17 killed four soldiers and injured 39.
Pugh said last week that 25 of those injured were still in various hospitals. “It will be different this year just with the weight of what happened,” he said. “Wainwright is a military community and it’s a big family. I get a sense that things will never be the same.”
Hundreds of military personnel, residents and dignitaries are expected to fill the town’s ice rink on Wednesday for Wainwright’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony. Pugh also said flowers and wreaths will be placed at the town’s clock tower, which includes a fieldstone memorial tower marking Canadians who died in the First and Second World Wars.
The town, home to about 7,000 people about 210 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, has long been intertwined with the Canadian Armed Forces and base life. Pugh said residents are accustomed to training activity, including hearing artillery and feeling windows shake during exercises.
He also said the community is worried about its “CAF friends” and the impact of the event. “We’re worried about our CAF friends,” Pugh said. “I know they have tremendous support and strength, but how can you go through an event like that and not have a scar?”
According to officials, about 84 soldiers with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry were taking part in a field exercise when strong winds whipped a grass fire into their path.
Prime Minister Mark Carney called the incident one of the worst tragedies for the Canadian Armed Forces on Canadian soil during peacetime. The four soldiers killed were identified as Sgt. Morgan Wong, 26, of Edmonton; Pte. Shaun Farrell, 23, of Prince Albert, Sask.; Pte. Aidan Goulding, 23, of North Vancouver, B.C.; and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, 19, of Langley, B.C.
The injured include Sean Hiatt, a 24-year-old corporal with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment who also worked as a railway track maintenance supervisor with CN Rail. CN said it plans to station locomotives outside the Wainwright arena on Wednesday.
The Wainwright and District Museum and Visitor Information Centre’s archivist Jennifer Ford said the mood in the community has been serious since the fire and described it as close-knit. She also said the area’s history includes its use during the Second World War as a temporary camp for prisoners of war after the Department of National Defence took over the site around 1939.
Ford said a guard once described a “very Canadian moment” at the camp when he noticed a hockey game taking place between guards and prisoners on his first day. She added that some prisoners later chose to stay in Canada.
Last week, Canada’s federal budget pledged $25 million over two years to support people affected by the fire, with Ottawa saying it has a responsibility to support members of the military and the families who stand with them.
Pugh said he expects the town and the base to draw attention during Remembrance Day and said, “I recognize that this idea of freedom is not free. There’s a cost that is paid, sadly, and those people are willing to do it. So they deserve our utmost respect.”
← More stories