WAINWRIGHT: Four soldiers were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a military base in Alberta province, one of the worst peacetime tragedies to hit Canada`s armed forces on home soil, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Sunday.

Carney made the solemn announcement without providing details on what caused the fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Saturday. `It is with deep sadness that I can confirm, at this time, that four service members have lost their lives and that their loved ones have been notified,` Carney said in the capital Ottawa, adding that `dozens of others have been seriously injured.` `This is one of the worst tragedies the Canadian Armed Forces have experienced on Canadian soil in peacetime,` he said.

A doctor at a hospital in the city of Edmonton, about 200 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of the base, told public broadcaster CBC that Wainwright`s health-care facilities were `completely overwhelmed` by the number of patients requiring care.

`It is more patients than any of us want to count right now,` Warren Thirsk said.-AFP