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Colby Cosh: CFB Wainwright and the Old Testament dangers of Prairie fire

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, some people invented stories that would be convincing if you knew nothing at all about the base

On Saturday, I was out and about on foot in Edmonton, a little after noon, when a very unusual windstorm whipped through the streets. It was a dry day, very warm for October; I wasn’t dressed for bad weather and had left my apartment with no reason to expect any, although once I got home, I saw that there had been an official wind alert.

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It is rare for me, as a lifelong inhabitant of the area, to experience discomfort and fear at being caught in the open, or even to think of “being caught in the open.” But this was my experience Saturday afternoon; I was scrambling between stores, found that my destination had gone out of business and had the specific thought, “Dammit! I’m in trouble.” That wind was heavy with dust and small rocks, and had a........

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