Skin grafts and surgeries: Reservist among critically injured in military base fire

Teresa Hiatt wasn’t worried about her younger brother while he was training at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta before deployment to Latvia.

All that changed Saturday when news broke that a fast-moving grass fire at the military base had killed four soldiers and injured dozens of others.

Sean Haitt, a 24-year-old corporal in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, is one of 19 in critical condition.

He’s sedated in an Edmonton hospital with burns to his face, arms and legs.

“You don’t expect it to happen when they’re training, right?” his sister said in a phone interview Tuesday from Edson, Alta.

“You have your fears if they’re deployed or in the line of combat. But when he left for his 20 days (in Wainwright), ‘Oh, he’ll be back.

“What we’ve been told, he’s going to need skin grafting. There’s going to be surgeries. There’s going to be therapy that he’s going to need to go through to regain the use of his limbs.”

She said they also don’t yet know the extend of the damage to his lungs.

“And there’s also the mental piece of it, right?”

The military has said 84 members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry were in a training area at Wainwright, 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, as a grass fire burned about a kilometre away.

Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, commander of 1st Canadian Division, said sudden, strong winds rapidly increased the fire’s intensity and flames were “right on top” of the soldiers within 30 seconds to a minute.

The four killed have been identified as: Sgt. Morgan Wong of Edmonton; Pte. Shaun Farrell of Prince Albert, Sask.; Pte. Aidan Goulding of North Vancouver; and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark of Langley, B.C.

As of Monday, 39 wounded were in hospital.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister David McGuinty said 33 were still being treated in various hospitals.

He said he wouldn’t comment on their medical conditions out of respect for their privacy.

McGuinty visited the Wainwright base Monday and visited some at the local hospital. He described the situation as “delicate and evolving” for those injured.

“We will provide all the support that we possibly can to make sure they get the help that they need,” McGuinty said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said 50 investigators on the ground are examining what happened.

McGuinty said there are three investigations going on.

This includes the RCMP working with military police on the formal investigation, the fire marshal’s work and a Forces board of inquiry, which examines matters of unusual significance or complexity resulting in the death or serious injury of military personnel.

McGuinty said it’s difficult to determine whether training protocol around wind should be changed until they have all the facts.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who was in Wainwright for two days, said he heard astonishing stories of bravery.

“The courage of soldiers who literally ran into walls of fire to pull their brothers and sisters out of danger,” he said.

“The story of the soldiers who were burned head to toe in the hospital, some with their vision lost, actually joking around with the nurses to try and make the nurses feel more comfortable.”

Teresa Hiatt said her first inkling something was wrong was around suppertime Saturday. She saw Facebook posts about the fire at the base.

She texted her brother’s girlfriend, who hadn’t heard from him since early that afternoon.

The family began calling hospitals and learned that he was in the Wainwright hospital. He was transferred to the University of Alberta hospital in Edmonton.

“He’s strong — that’s what the doctor said. He’s strong,” Hiatt said.

“He’s 24, he’s strong, that’s what he’s got going for him.”

She spent two days at her brother’s beside, and their parents are now with him.

His injuries could be life-altering, she said, and there’s questions about whether he’ll be able to return to the military as a reservist or to his job as a railway track maintenance supervisor with Canadian National.

She has organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to help her brother.

“He’s always wanted to be a hero. Since he was a little boy, he’s loved anything to do with that — superheroes and the brotherhood that the military has. He loves it,” she said.

“He’s a strong man and he just loves pushing his body to the extremes. He loves all of that.

“And he wanted to serve his country.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2026. 

— With files from Nick Murray and Kyle Duggan in Ottawa