CFB Wainwright fire highlights long, painful process of burn recovery, specialists say

TORONTO — 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.

Nicole Ireland and Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press