Exclusive: CFB Wainwright Satellite Satellite Images Show The CFB Wainwright Pairs Range After The Fire

New 70 cm satellite images, taken three days after the Oct. 17 fire, show what burned around the likely pairs range, where the fire was at noon, and where it stopped.

Kevin J.S. Duska Jr. | Prime Rogue | Calgary, AB | October 26, 2026

What The Satellites Show Happened at CFB Wainwright

These CFB Wainwright fire satellite images were taken at 12:56 p.m. on Oct. 20, 2026, by a Satellogic satellite, and licensed by Prime Rogue. At 70 cm per pixel, they show tracks, pads and patches of unburned grass that earlier public images could not. CBC published wider Planet Labs images of the burn on Oct. 20. These are the first published at sub-metre resolution to show Range 2 and Range 15, the likely pairs range, up close.

The fire burned about 1,150 hectares. Most of it went in one run after a cold front reached it around 3:29 p.m.; we traced how in the flank became the front. Satellites had seen the fire hours before DND’s ignition time. DND has said the fire reached the pairs range “just before 4:00. Follow every update on our CFB Wainwright fire live page.

The burn, three days later

The dark ground is the Oct. 17 burn. Red dots are where Landsat saw fire at 12:17 p.m., three hours before the run. Yellow dots are Range 2 and Range 15, plotted from the grid references in the base’s 2024 Range Standing Orders, first reported by Global News’ Ashleigh Stewart. Boxes A to D are the close-ups below.

A. Range 2, Range 15 and the road head

DND hasn’t said where the pairs range was. Our analysis places it here: Range 15 is a field-firing range, the kind used for fire-and-movement in pairs, and DND’s “a kilometre away” fits this ground best. Range 2 sits on an unburned strip beside a gravel pad and its access road. Range 15 and the road head sit at the junction of the east-west road and the north-south track, also on unburned ground. The fire burned all around them and crossed the track just south of the junction. North of the east-west road, the ground east of the track did not burn.

B. The noon fire line

Landsat’s 12:17 p.m. hot spots sit well inside the final burn. The ground between them and the burn’s north-west edge burned too, before or after the front; this image cannot say which. Before the front, the fire crept; after it, the wind drove it south-east.

C. The track that held

North of the pairs range, the fire burned up to the north-south track and stopped. The track worked as a fuel break here. Further south, at the pairs range, the fire crossed it, and Canadian soldiers died, and suffered horrific injuries as a result.

D. Stopped at the base’s edge

On the east side, the burn runs up to the road on the base’s eastern boundary. Burned range grass lies to the west; green pasture and farmland lie to the east.

How we made these

The image is Satellogic NewSat-49, 18:56 UTC Oct. 20, 70 cm resolution, bought through SkyFi. The range locations come from the base’s Range Standing Orders, not from maps; Global News first reported the orders, via investigative journalist Ashleigh Steward, including their advice to fire early in the day in October. The satellite looked 24° off straight down, so positions may be off by a few metres. The danger-area line is OpenStreetMap’s, not official. Our data, code and methods are in the CFB Wainwright fire archive.

Imagery: Satellogic via SkyFi, Oct. 20, 2026. Annotations and analysis: Prime Rogue Inc. These images are licensed to Prime Rogue and are not available for download.