Military officials to examine weather conditions, training times of CFB Wainwright tragedy

Canada’s army says training has already resumed at the forces base in Wainwright, Alta., and it says three investigations are underway into how soldiers were caught up in a deadly wildfire last Saturday.

At the same time, a medical team from Hamilton has flown to Alberta to help surviving soldiers recover from the fire.

Experts from Hamilton Health Sciences’ world-renowned burn unit have flown to Alberta to help the soldiers still in hospital.

The army indicates it’s going to be some time before investigations into the fire come up with any answers.

With questions swirling around the fire on the Wainwright base that left four soldiers dead and many more injured, top generals provided an update.

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“39 soldiers injured — as of today 27 remain in hospital in separate facilities,” said Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, Commander 1 Canadian Division. “We are heartened that 12 soldiers are no longer hospitalized.”

The army says three investigations are underway by military police, a military board of inquiry, and Alberta’s chief medical examiner.

“We will not shy away from answers, whatever hard truths they may reveal,” said Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan.

The generals say the fire that swept through the Wainwright base broke out in an area away from the range where soldiers were training on Saturday — it was in an area firefighters couldn’t reach and wasn’t seen as a threat at first.

Then the winds changed.

WATCH MORE: Fire kills four soldiers, injures dozens at CFB Wainwright, Alberta

Investigators will be looking at why the training continued despite the fire.

“That, again, is all part of the decision-making process that happened that day and that is all part of the ongoing military police investigation,” said military police commander and Brig.-Gen. Vanessa Hanrahan.

They say the investigation will also consider why the training was taking place in the afternoon when Wainwright’s standing orders are to train in the morning during months when there’s a high fire risk.

“What I’d say is that’s a guideline, and commanders on the ground have to assess multiple factors in order to decide whether or not to go ahead with shooting,” said Rutland.

“There are difficult questions about what happened,” said Carignan. “I am acutely aware of our responsibility to establish the facts.”

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The soldiers in hospital in Alberta, including 13 in critical condition, are being treated by burn specialists, including nine nurses from Hamilton Health Science’s burn unit.

“A burn, particularly when it’s bigger, causes this massive stress — inflammation,” said Dr. Marc Jeschke with Hamilton Health Sciences. “We call it hypermetabolic response that affects every organ: the brain, the lungs, everything internally. So the outside burn causes this monstrous, significant, profound and complex response”

The nurses are from a burn unit pioneering the use of new stem-cell based therapy that helped a young burn victim recover.

That therapy isn’t yet available for other patients, but the head of the burn unit says the nurses will be using their Hamilton experience.

He says he was overwhelmed by the response when Ontario put out the request for help.

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“Within minutes we were full, minutes,” said Jeschke. “So that goes to show you what our team in Hamilton was thinking, how they responded — it’s just mind-boggling.”

The army is also praising the soldiers who were there when the fire hit.

“I want you to know what those soldiers did,” said Rutland. “In the minutes after the fire swept through, soldiers and leaders, whether injured or uninjured, did not hesitate. They loaded injured teammates onto vehicles and got them to medical care as quickly as anyone could have.”

He says stories of valour and heroism will eventually come out from the day of the fire.

The army has not provided any estimated time for release of reports on the investigations underway.

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