Major fire breaks out in Alberta after deadly incident at Canadian military base

ROB GILLIES
Updated Sat, October 17, 2026 at 9:18 PM EDT

Paramedics load an injured person into an ambulance at the Wainwright Health center after a fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, outside of Wainwright, Alberta Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP) (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)

Emergency crews and military personnel gather at the Wainwright Health Centre as injured military members are treated after a fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, outside of Wainwright, Alberta Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP) (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)

Paramedics load an injured person into an ambulance at the Wainwright Health Centre as injured military members are treated after a fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, outside of Wainwright, Alberta Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP) (John Ulan/The Canadian Press via AP)


EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Canada's defense minister said 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 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, 180 kilometers (120 miles) northwest, 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.

"This number of patients would overwhelm the city of Edmonton," Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, told CBC News. "It is more patients than any of us want to count right now. It's a disaster. It's a one in every 15- to 25-year disaster."

Acute Care Alberta said several hospitals across the province had activated a "Code Orange," an emergency designation used when multiple severely injured patients require coordinated medical care. The agency said emergency medical resources were stretched so thin that extremely few ambulances were available in the Edmonton area. It urged people to avoid the University of Alberta Hospital emergency department if possible.

Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh said the town's small hospital was not designed to handle a mass-casualty incident but praised the response of local medical personnel. He said helicopters and planes had been transporting patients to other facilities for treatment.

The Strangest Army on Earth | Inside the Vatican's Swiss Guard | ENDEVR Documentary

 The Strangest Army on Earth | Inside the Vatican's Swiss Guard | ENDEVR Documentary

ENDEVR

Oct 18, 2026 

The World's Strangest Army | Inside the Vatican's Swiss Guard | ENDEVR Documentary

They are heirs to a 500-year-old tradition in which mercenaries from Switzerland ensured the Pope’s protection and security. At the time, these fighters were considered the most seasoned and loyal. Trained to wield both halberds and semi- automatic assault rifles, the Swiss Guards form a unique army. But who are they really? What motivates these young boys to join this military and religious corps? An insight into a world usually closed to the cameras.

It’s the world's smallest and most mysterious army: the Pontifical Swiss Guard. We were granted exceptional access to these men of faith and combat, from their recruitment in Switzerland to their military training in the heart of the Vatican. Made up of 150 men, this elite corps lives in barracks in the heart of Vatican City. All must be Swiss nationals and devout Catholics. All have sworn to fight to the death to protect their faith and the Holy Father. We see them at official ceremonies, escorting the Pope with their armor and halberds from another era. But beyond the folkloric aspect of their costumes, these Swiss Guards receive top-level military training: martial arts, close protection, and handling of the latest automatic weapons.

Military leaders pushing 'Armageddon views' on troops as Iran war begins: complaint

Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Andrew Harnik/REUTERS

Travis Gettys
March 03, 2026

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers Monday that the Iran war was part of God's plan to usher in the End Times and bring about Jesus Christ's second coming, according to a complaint filed with a religious freedom watchdog.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has fielded more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the U.S. military between the war's start on Saturday morning and Monday night, reported journalist Jonathan Larson on his Substack page, and the group told him the complaints came from more than 40 different units stationed in at least 30 military installations.

"These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new 'biblically-sanctioned' war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian 'End Times' as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation," said MRFF President and Founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House.

Philippines Welcomes Additional U.S. Missile Systems Despite China Objection

Archbishop for U.S. Military Says It’s ‘Morally Acceptable’ for Troops to Disobey Orders Amid Escalating Trump Threats

by
Connor Greene

Editorial Fellow

Archbishop Timothy Broglio conducts an Easter Sunday Mass at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sunday, April 12, 2020.Jose Luis Magana—AP Photo/File



The archbishop for the U.S. military services said that it “would be morally acceptable” for troops to disobey orders that go against their conscience as the Trump Administration ramps up its military actions and threats, joining other prominent Catholic leaders in sounding alarms over President Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy moves.

“It would be very difficult for a soldier or a marine or a sailor to by himself disobey an order,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio told the BBC Sunday. “But strictly speaking, he or she would be, within the realm of their own conscience, it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order, but that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern.”

When asked if he was “worried” about the troops in the archdiocese he oversees, Broglio responded: “I am obviously worried because they could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something which is morally questionable.”

Broglio, who has served as the head of the Washington, D.C.-based archdiocese of the U.S. military since 2007, specifically pushed back against Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland.

“Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” the archbishop said. “It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”

Read more: Trump Warns There’s ‘No Going Back’ on Greenland and Accuses U.K. of ‘Act of Great Stupidity’

A number of other high-ranking Catholic bishops and Pope Leo XIV have also raised vocal concerns in recent weeks as U.S. forces deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the President has levied threats against several other countries and territories, including in his renewed push to acquire Greenland. The Pope, who—along with a number of U.S. bishops—has also challenged Trump’s immigration crackdown, recently condemned a “diplomacy based on force” in an annual speech at the Vatican.

With Russia looming, Europe tries to beef up its youth military service

By Colette Davidson Special correspondent
@kolet_ink

Dec. 18, 2025, 3:54 p.m. ET|Paris


Last month, when French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a new voluntary military program, he was met with record approval from the French public. The reaction, coming as the president’s popularity is dwindling, is evidence that goes beyond politics: France is ready to defend itself.

With the war in Ukraine looming just more than 1,200 miles away, there is a growing awareness in France that the nation must secure its borders in the event of Russian aggression.

The €2 billion program will offer 10 months of paid military training to 18- and 19-year-olds, with the goal of providing thousands of young people with domestic security skills, so that France has a deep pool of reserves in the event of an armed conflict.

Why We Wrote This

The potential military threat from Russia and the decreasing support from the United States have countries across Europe looking to conscript able-bodied citizens. But it's a big ask after decades of peace and prosperity.

Mr. Macron is not the only one eyeing defense. As Russia’s war in Ukraine heads toward its fifth year and Europe faces the largest threats to its borders since the Cold War, leaders across the continent are taking a harder look at the strength of their militaries.

But as European leaders debate the benefits of mandatory versus voluntary service, for whom and how long, they are confronting an even bigger challenge: How to show the public the value of joining the ranks.

“First and foremost, the goal of the military is to build defense personnel,” says Jean-Claude Allard, an associate security researcher at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. “You can’t tell young people, ‘Join the military, it’s going to be a Club Med vacation.’”

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Blue Angels, Fort Hood, Thunderbirds mishaps: 'A tough day for military'

By Tara Copp
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 3, 2016

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, in Singapore for a security conference, began a news conference Friday, June 3, 2016, with a statement on the Fort Hood deaths and a Navy Blue Angels training accident Thursday that killed Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, pictured above.
ANDREA PEREZ/U.S. NAVY

China’s military buildup in the South China Sea dominated the first day of a key Asian security summit Friday, with U.S. partners trying to strike a balance between challenging the Chinese and working with them in what some see as a new reality in the region.

Obama meets Air Force pilot who ejected before Thunderbirds jet crash

The pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover met with President Barack Obama shortly after ejecting safely into a Colorado field. News of the crash broke while Obama's motorcade was returning to Peterson Air Force Base on Thursday for his flight back to Washington. The pilot ejected about 15 miles south of the academy.

5 dead, 4 missing after Army truck swept away in Texas flood

Aerial and ground crews searched the 20-mile creek that winds through heavily wooded terrain on the northern fringe of the sprawling Army base. Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used.

Fort Hood officials were closing roads as truck overturned

Fort Hood commanders were in the process of closing roads on the sprawling Army post in Central Texas when a truck carrying 12 soldiers overturned in a fast-flowing flooded creek during a training exercise, killing five and leaving four missing, officials said Friday.

2 military planes go down in separate incidents

Two military planes went down on Thursday in coincidental unrelated incidents in Colorado and in Tennessee, and the pilot in one incident died, the U.S. Navy confirmed.

SINGAPORE — Investigations into two fatal military training accidents on the same day will focus on how to prevent recurrences, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Friday.

Five soldiers from Fort Hood died, three were rescued and four remained missing after floodwaters swept away their troop carrier during a training mission Thursday.

All of the soldiers were from the 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division at the Killeen, Texas, Army base. The soldiers came from a unit that had recently redeployed from South Korea.

The three rescued soldiers were in stable condition and being transported from Coryell Memorial Healthcare System, where they were initially treated, to Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.

The soldiers were driving through a low-water crossing on base during a training mission when a flash flood overturned their Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, according to The Associated Press and information released by Fort Hood. Texas has been pounded by record rains.

Carter, in Singapore for a security conference, began a news conference Friday with a statement on the Fort Hood deaths and a Navy Blue Angels training accident Thursday that killed Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss.

“Thursday was a tough day for the U.S. military,” Carter said. “Our hearts and thoughts are with the families.

“The fact that both of these losses are safety issues in training — we’re going to ensure we learn lessons that we can from the investigations … and we take actions in the future to prevent such accidents and keep our people safe,” Carter said.

In another incident Thursday, an Air Force Thunderbird crashed in Colorado. That pilot ejected safely.

At Fort Hood, aircraft, search-and-rescue dogs, and watercraft continued to search for the missing soldiers, 1st Cavalry Division commander Maj. Gen. John C. Thomson III said in a statement.

“Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated during this difficult time,” Thomson said.

copp.tara@Stripes.com
Twitter: @TaraCopp

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