Test - NAR926
October 21, 2021, 03:30 PM
This is created 21-10-2021 at 1:20pm
I will schedule this for today at 1:30pm
Now, this is a change added at 1:21pm after scheduling the post. The idea is to see if this auto saves.
Discover Narcity
Get the latest and greatest stories every day in your inbox.
B.C. victim of Wainwright fire was everybody's best friend, says rugby coach
Wainwright victim everybody's best friend: coach
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Facebook, Nadine Dunford (Mandatory Credit)
The former rugby coach for Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, one of four soldiers who died in a fire at CFB Wainwright on Saturday, says all of the teenager's team and his schoolmates thought of him as their best friend.
Trevor Plater, who coached Lykkemark in his senior year at Langley Secondary School in Langley, B.C., says Lykkemark was "always looking out for everybody."
Canada's military says officials were aware of a wildfire in the area but didn't consider it a threat before a violent windstorm blew in, killing four and sending scores of soldiers to hospital with bad burns.
Pte. Aidan Goulding of North Vancouver, Sgt. Morgan Wong of Edmonton and Pte. Shaun Farrell of Prince Albert, Sask. also died in the fire.
Plater says Lykkemark, who was 19, was particularly close to former teammate Kane Lewis who has set up an online fundraiser for his friend’s family.
Lewis says in a statement on the donation page, which has raised more than $20,000, that he and Lykkemark joined the army at the same time, and were in the same platoon for basic training.
“That’s where he became more than just a friend; he became a brother. He was always looking out for everyone and always kept himself in check,” Lewis' statement says.
The Langley Rugby Club says in an online statement that Lykkemark was a dedicated student, athlete and friend who made a positive impact on people around him.
“Hayden’s legacy of service, friendship, and compassion will not be forgotten,” it says.
The victims of the fire served in the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry based at Edmonton
Plater says in an interview on Monday that Lykkemark "wasn't afraid to make tackles or get in or do his part."
"He wasn't necessarily somebody who talked a lot but he had a big impact when he did and he was always listening and paying attention,” he says.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2026.
By Nono Shen | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Keep reading
Show less
CFB Wainwright fire highlights long, painful process of burn recovery, specialists say
Patients with severe burns face long recovery: specialists
THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Ulan
Burn specialists in Toronto and Hamilton say their hospitals are ready to support their Alberta colleagues as they care for dozens of patients injured in Saturday's devastating fire at CFB Wainwright.
Although they don't know the specific condition of the 39 hospitalized patients — 19 of them in critical condition — they say recovering from serious burns is a long and painful process fraught with threats of infection.
Dr. Alan Rogers, a burn surgeon at the Ross Tilley Burn Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, says the hospital is ready to take patients if burn centres in Calgary and Edmonton need backup and they could also send temporary skin frozen in Sunnybrook's tissue bank.
Rogers says age and chronic illnesses are factors in the chances of recovery for severely burned patients.
He says it's possible for younger healthy adults to survive burns to 80 per cent of their body, although other injuries, including smoke inhalation, are other factors.
Rogers says severely burned patients must endure multiple surgeries over weeks or even months — first to remove the burned tissue and cover the areas with donated cadaver skin or artificial skin substitutes, then later to graft skin from other areas of the patient's body.
The burn care team can use techniques like expanding the skin grafts to cover more of the exposed area.
They prioritize areas to be covered, including the face and hands, he said.
Seriously burned patients are immunocompromised because they don't have a skin barrier, Rogers said, so they are often kept in isolation rooms for weeks to protect them from infection.
Extensive burns can also prompt an "overwhelming" inflammatory response in the body that can strain the patient's organs, he said.
Dr. Marc Jeschke, director of the burn program at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, said his team wants to help their colleagues in Alberta however they can, noting the long road ahead for patients with severe burns.
"It is severe injury that causes significant burden to the patients, to the families, to the loved ones, to everybody," Jeschke said.
"It is not over like a fracture when you walk out a couple of days later. This is something that will affect their lives forever."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2026.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
By Nicole Ireland and Hannah Alberga | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Keep reading
Show less
Doerkson says B.C. Conservative growth projection of 3.2% 'absolutely doable'
Doerkson says growth of 3.2% 'absolutely doable'
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
British Columbia's interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson says his party's projection of 3.2 per cent economic growth by 2029 represents about one per cent "more optimism" than the New Democrats had previously budgeted.
The Conservatives' figure, which is more than 50 per cent higher than the forecast in the last provincial budget, is also considerably higher than recent projections by the Bank of Canada and International Monetary Fund at the national level.
But Doerkson told a campaign stop in Maple Ridge, B.C., in the final days before the Oct. 24 provincial election that the growth is "absolutely doable."
He says industries, including natural gas, forestry, mining and agriculture, are waiting for a change in government to invest in the province because of "fear" under the previous NDP regime.
The Conservative platform promises to create $2.6 billion in new revenue over three years, while shrinking the deficit to $10.8 billion based on gross domestic product growing by 2.5 per cent next year, 2.8 per cent the year after and 3.2 per cent in 2029.
NDP Leader David Eby says the Conservatives are "torquing the numbers" and their platform has "major omissions" in how the party would pay for its plans.
"They failed to cost basic platform commitments like their cut to the (Provincial Sales Tax) on alcohol, which costs almost $300 million," Eby told a campaign stop in Vancouver on Monday.
"It is all with the aim of minimizing the reality of the cuts they're going to have to make."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2026.
By Brenna Owen | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Keep reading
Show less