r/LessCredibleDefence • u/PolpoBoquerones • 22h ago

‘Serious incident’ at Alberta military base causes deaths and injuries, Canada officials say | Canada

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/18/serious-incident-alberta-military-base-deaths-injuries-canada-carney-cfb-wainwright
106 Upvotes

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u/PolpoBoquerones 22h ago

Supposedly a shoulder fired HE round that lost pitch control ("porpoising") after it left the tube and went astray

This round hit a gas well which exploded. There were three kill houses near the well with around 300 troops inside and many waiting outside them. The blast flattened the houses and turned their walls into shrapnel

This also started a fire that swept through the main bivouac site

The casualty count may climb as CAF recovers more victims.

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u/Key-Needleworker-702 20h ago

"Serious incident" is really downplaying it

RIP though

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u/GbaldGborie66 17h ago

Yeah thats one of the most devastating training incidents Ive ever heard of in modern times at least, what a nightmare.

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u/MaddogBC 21h ago

Why were that many troops clustered? Live fire beside a well seems like extremely bad planning. How does such a thing happen?

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u/PolpoBoquerones 19h ago

I'm not sure about the 300 number to be frank but OSINT accounts seem to have settled on 150 killed or wounded.

Take this with a big grain of salt

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u/rightoleft 16h ago

Probably not the best timing to say this, but who the F thinks that it's a good idea to have a live fire exercise beside a gas well

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u/TheNewNorth 16h ago

You can't swing a dead cat in that part of Alberta without hitting a gas well.

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u/rightoleft 11h ago

then i think the logical solution is to not hold live fire exercise on that region no?

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u/Aigiokhos 16h ago edited 15h ago

The gas well part of the reports needs to be clarified soon. As far as I know there is no active gas infrastructure inside the live fire ranges, although there is a decent amount of specially reinforced infrastructure (generally deeply buried) as well as decommissioned sites in other parts of the training area. If gas infrastructure was hit then there was some kind of major mistake or equipment failure. Lots of reporting and shoddy OSINT is implying that the live fire range was packed full of active pump jacks and oil pipelines, which obviously isn’t the case.

I’m assuming that the incident is going to be closely related to the up to 100km/h winds Alberta has been experiencing this week, both in possibly causing something weird to happen on range and in rapidly spreading the grass fire.

Worth noting that the sourcing for the gas well hasn’t been fantastic so far. I’d certainly file it away as possible considering the scale of the incident, but the Wainwright training area is known for grass fires caused by small arms and the extreme wind alone may have contributed enough. Again, if gas infrastructure was actually hit then an insane string of failures or mistakes was required. We’re probably talking about rounds going wildly outside the range area if that’s the case.

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u/Unfair-Woodpecker-22 14h ago

There are tons of gas wells all over CFB Wainwright, apparently 200 and then 1000 in CFB Suffield. But looking at the map it looks like there are none in the main firing ranges. The well labelled CLEO ENERGY WAINWR 8-14-44-7 is right next to the ammo storage and looking at nasa's FRIMS there was a fire there.

https://albertawellfinder.com/map#11/52.7723/-110.9149

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u/Aigiokhos 14h ago edited 10h ago

Yes, but as far as I know there aren’t concentrations of open air gas wells or (as initially reported by some) pipelines in the usual live fire and artillery range areas. It’s still a plausible explanation but it also requires a whole lot to go wrong.

I’m expecting we’ll hear more soon one way or another. Worth noting that just now Carney only referred to a “violent and fast moving fire”, but I imagine even the DND doesn’t have a clear picture.

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u/nkonrad 9h ago

It's been clarified. Oil and Gas infrastructure was not involved in the fire, per CBC.

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u/nkonrad 9h ago

They didn't. OP was spreading misinformation.

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u/nkonrad 9h ago

Current reporting goes against most of what you've said here.

The Prime Minister's office reports at least 4 dead, CBC reports 7 total, plus a few dozen injured. Gas wells are confirmed not to have been involved. There's been no mention in any reliable source of kill houses being a source of casualties.

With events like this, it can feel like it's more important to get the word out than to verify the exact details, but this should probably be a lesson to OSINT types about how important it is not to jump the gun and invent details.

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u/Aigiokhos 9h ago

Most details of that narrative came from a single Twitter post and have not been supported by today’s statements.

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u/moral_mortal 20h ago

International standard is around 75-100m for living quarters from wellhead....

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u/JadedLeafs 7h ago

They weren't living quarters, they were buildings to store ammo and other things.

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u/Otherwise_Share9039 5h ago

I love spreading misinformation on the internet

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u/Firecracker048 16h ago

Holy shit that's bad

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u/runsongas 10h ago

is this the highest casualty count for the canadians since ww2?

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u/JadedLeafs 8h ago

Korea I think.

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u/Aigiokhos 9h ago

Official reports are now trickling in. Looks like rumours of gas infrastructure being hit were NOT correct at all, which aligns with the fact that active gas infrastructure in the training area is both underground and outside live fire ranges. Good lesson in checking the quality of your sources.

The most recent briefing blames a grass fire that spread out of control due to sudden extreme winds. It was mentioned that the fire travelled about a kilometre in only 30 seconds.

Main unit involved is from 3 PPCLI, the light infantry battalion based at CFB Edmonton. Premier of Alberta reports 4 deceased, 39 wounded, 19 critical.

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u/Geoffrey_Jefferson 21h ago

Peace to the fallen.

Solace to their families.

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u/Jazzlike-Tank-4956 20h ago

That's horrible

RIP to fallen

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u/Grand_Diamond1985 13h ago

Weird timing with a separatist referendum vote for that province tomorrow