Canada says people killed after incident and fire at Alberta military base

Canada says people killed after incident and fire at Alberta military base

Large numbers of injured people were sent to hospitals in Wainwright following the ‘disaster’ at the facility

Canada’s defence minister said on Saturday that people were killed and injured in an incident at a military base in Alberta that caused a major fire, while reports said that large numbers of injured people were being transported to hospitals.

Fire crews scrambled late into the night as fierce winds whipped flames beyond Canadian Forces Base Wainwright and into the surrounding rural area.

It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or injured, but a doctor at a hospital in the city of Edmonton, 180km (120 miles) northwest of Wainwright, told Canada’s national broadcaster that patients were being brought to hospitals across the city as healthcare facilities around the base became “completely overwhelmed” by the number of people needing care.