Photo: Daniel from Glasgow, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0Brentwood’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.1% of area homes over the radon guideline
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Brentwood: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Brentwood sits near the middle: $0.023 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Brentwood grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Brentwood’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Brentwood: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Brentwood faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Brentwood: B+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Brentwood with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #282 of 474 in Alberta and #1,102 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Brentwood has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Brentwood’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Brentwood at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 6.1 km from Brentwood’s homes since 1986.
Only 1% of the land within 25 km of Brentwood is forest fuel, and 0% close in.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Alberta · highest of 478
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Brentwood, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops the list at 1.43%.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Brentwood shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Brentwood
Flood studies whose area touches Brentwood, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Brentwood; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Brentwood.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Brentwood to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Expected shaking damage in Brentwood: $0.023 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
With $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Brentwood is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Alberta: Brentwood’s $0.023 against a median of $0.013, with Black Diamond highest at $0.048.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Brentwood sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 54% expect more shaking damage.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
The model counts damage to Brentwood’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Calgary
Radon about average around Brentwood: 8.1% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Calgary Health Region: radon tests
Near the middle for radon: Brentwood’s area 8.1%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Brentwood’s area, at 8.1%, is close to the median in Alberta (7.5%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Brentwood with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
The survey sampled homes around Brentwood; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Brentwood
Alerts for Brentwood come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Fire danger and active fires near Brentwood are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Brentwood’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brentwood | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Charleswood 5,642 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Varsity 12,605 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Dalhousie 8,617 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| University Heights 4,031 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Banff Trail 4,175 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Capitol Hill 6,135 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Brentwood has the most fire on record (low); Charleswood follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Brentwood faces
What to do about the hazards Brentwood faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Brentwood’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Brentwood floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Brentwood sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Brentwood’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Brentwood
How is Brentwood’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Brentwood B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Brentwood flood?
Nothing is listed for Brentwood on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Brentwood?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of 86 homes tested in Brentwood’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Brentwood at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Brentwood has burned since 1986, the last in 2014, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Brentwood?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Brentwood.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).