A number of people have been killed and others are injured after an incident caused a major fire at a military base in Canada’s province of Alberta, the defence minister said.

Fire crews scrambled late into the night on Saturday as fierce winds whipped flames beyond Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Wainwright, one of Canada’s busiest military training bases, and into the surrounding rural area.

“I’m saddened to share that there have been both fatalities and injuries as a result of an incident on the base,” Minister of National Defence David McGuinty said.

“I cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory,” he said, adding that the situation was “very, very active and delicate”.

The Canadian broadcaster Global News said at least seven people were killed and dozes of others were injured, citing unnamed military sources.

Global News reported that a gas line or a gas well was hit during an live fire training exercise, causing an explosion that started the fire.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said that a “serious incident” had caused the fire, writing on social media: “Our thoughts are with all the brave women and men affected.”

A doctor at a hospital in the city of Edmonton, 180km (112 miles) north west of the base, told Canada’s national broadcaster that patients were being brought to hospitals across the city as healthcare facilities around the base were  “completely overwhelmed” by the number of people needing care.

“This number of patients would overwhelm the city of Edmonton,” Dr Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, told CBC News.

“It is more patients than any of us want to count right now. It’s a disaster. It’s a one in every 15 to 25-year disaster.”

The Municipal District of Wainwright said the fire crossed the base’s fence and spread rapidly in high winds.

The Canadian Armed Forces and federal, provincial and local authorities are coordinating the emergency response, McGuinty said.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the fire “significant and tragic” and said it was affecting many military personnel.

Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said he has spoken to Carney and McGuinty to offer support. “Pray for Wainwright, everyone,” he wrote on social media, urging people in the area to follow emergency instructions and keep roads clear for first responders.

The fire comes two days before Albertans vote on whether the province, home to about five million people, should begin the legal process towards a binding referendum on seceding from Canada.

Carney used his Thanksgiving message last week to call for national unity.