Hundreds gathered in a Wainwright hockey arena on Wednesday for a Remembrance Day service shaped by grief for four soldiers killed in a grass fire at the nearby Canadian Forces base less than a month earlier.

The Canadian Press, in reporting published by Global News, described mourners standing for a moment of silence before Rev. Mokwadi Basele of Grace United Church led prayers for the dead, the injured and those supporting them.

“God, we come closer to home, we come to Wainwright, as we remember the tragedy that befell this small town,” Basele said.

The Oct. 17 fire killed Pte. Shaun Farrell, 23, of Prince Albert, Sask.; Pte. Aidan Goulding, 23, of North Vancouver, B.C.; Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, 19, of Langley, B.C.; and Sgt. Morgan Wong, 26, of Edmonton.

About 84 soldiers from Charlie Company of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, were conducting attack training when a windstorm drove flames from a grass fire onto the troops. Another 39 soldiers were injured. As of Nov. 5, 21 remained in hospital.

Basele prayed for those healing in hospital and at home, as well as comrades, friends and others living with shock and grief.

Outside the Peace Memorial Multiplex, flowers and wreaths were also left a few blocks away at Wainwright’s century-old fieldstone memorial tower, which commemorates Canadians who died in the First and Second World Wars.

“We come every year,” resident Reimer Nielsen said. “This (Remembrance Day) is a little more sombre and more important to be here for the four.”

The soldiers were remembered elsewhere in Alberta and across Canada. In St. Albert, northwest of Edmonton, at least 2,000 people lined a road leading to the cenotaph. Roughly 300 members of the same regiment marched to the memorial, where Farrell’s family laid a wreath in his honour.

Retired Armed Forces chaplain Rev. Ken MacRae told those gathered that the soldiers who were killed or injured had dreams, friends and families who loved them. He said the four names would be added to some cenotaphs and memorial sites across the country.

At the national ceremony in Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney also honoured the Wainwright soldiers. Three investigations are examining the deadly fire.

Sources