Fatal CFB Wainwright fire the latest tragedy at the Alberta CAF base

Since 2005, at least seven other soldiers have been killed while stationed at CFB Wainwright in Alberta. Photo by DAPHNE LEMELIN /AFP via Getty Images

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While the vast majority of Canadian Armed Forces members’ deaths have occurred during wartime, the CAF has known no shortage of non-wartime tragedies at domestic and international bases over its storied and valiant history.

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Before the fire that swept through the training area at CFB Wainwright in Alberta on Saturday, killing four soldiers and injuring 39 more — 19 critically — “10 Canadians have died in accidents while serving in the military” since 2020, according to The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

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One of those was Cpl. James Choi, a 29-year-old member of the Royal Westminster Regiment based in New Westminster, B.C., who was shot during a nighttime live-fire training exercise at CFB Wainwright in October 2020.

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Choi, who had joined just four years prior and was training with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) at the time, was treated on the scene before being flown to Edmonton, where he died in hospital, National Post reported at the time.

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Cpl. Lars Callsen of the PPCLI’s 3rd Battalion was charged in May 2021 with one count of negligence in Choi’s death, but prosecutors with the Department of National Defence opted not to pursue the charges, CBC reported in 2023.

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Cpl. James Choi served with the Royal Westminster Regiment based in New Westminster, B.C. Photo by Harjit Sajjan/Twitter

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Defence officials didn’t explain why at the time and said Callsen returned to serve with his unit.

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The busy base in Wainwright, about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, is home to the CAF’s Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre (CMTC) and the 3rd Canadian Division Training Centre (3 CDTC), and has experienced several fatal incidents in the last 20 or so years.

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In April 2017, Royal Canadian Dragoons Sgt. Robbery (Bobby) J. Dynerowicz, a 31-year-old veteran of 12 years who’d served two tours in Afghanistan, died in a single-vehicle crash when the light armoured vehicle (LAV) he was commanding crashed on a heavily travelled gravel road on the base.

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Sgt. Rob Dynerowicz waves from the turret of an armoured vehicle during a 2015 parade. Dynerowicz died in a LAV-III rollover at CFB Wainwright two years later. Photo by The Daily Observer /SunMedia

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That particular vehicle, the LAV-III, had been involved in 14 rollover incidents resulting in at least eight deaths since it was introduced for use in 1999, the Ottawa Citizen reported in 2014.

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The Citizen’s report was prompted by a rollover that May that caused the death of Lt.-Col. Dan Bobbitt, commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery’s 2nd Regiment, based in Garrison Petawawa, Ont.

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The 43-year-old married father of three had served two tours in Bosnia and one in Afghanistan before his death.

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Lt.-Col. Dan Bobbitt died when a LAV III armoured vehicle he was in rolled over on Wednesday, May 21, 2014, during an international training exercise at CFB Wainwright. SunMedia

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The accident happened during Exercise Maple Resolve, the largest Canadian military exercise of the year at CFB Wainwright with about 5000 personnel, the Citizen reported.

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In November 2014, 20-year-old Pte. Pete Allen, a rookie soldier with barely a year of service under his belt, died from injuries suffered when the three-metre-high lookout-type tower he was standing on collapsed.

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Pt. Steven Allen died at CFB Wainwright when he was just 20 years old. Photo by Department of National Defence

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As reported by National Post, Allen was recruited in October 2013, completed basic training in January and had been posted to Wainwright’s 3rd Canadian Division Training Centre to become a regular force infantry soldier.