Hazard risk in Beacon Heights is lower than in 98% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Beacon Heights, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.013 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Beacon Heights grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Beacon Heights’s hazards
For Beacon Heights, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Beacon Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Beacon Heights grades A+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Beacon Heights, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #11 of 474 in Alberta and #22 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 73 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Beacon Heights: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Beacon Heights’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Beacon Heights fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Only 0.2% of the land within 25 km of Beacon Heights is forest fuel, and 0.1% 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
Among the 478 towns in Alberta, Wainwright burns fastest (1.43% a year); Beacon Heights is with the 386 near zero.
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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Beacon Heights sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
Beacon Heights is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Beacon Heights, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Government of Alberta studied flooding in an area that includes Beacon Heights (2024); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Beacon Heights apart in Alberta, where 46% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Beacon Heights floods.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Little shaking expected in Beacon Heights: $0.013 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.
0.4 times the typical $0.030: Beacon Heights’ $0.013 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Beacon Heights at $0.013 beside a median in Alberta of $0.013, with Black Diamond on top 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Beacon Heights than in 75% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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).
For Beacon Heights the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Edmonton
Radon runs low around Beacon Heights: 1.4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Capital Health
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Beacon Heights’ area has fewer, 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Alberta is 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; around Beacon Heights it is 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Beacon Heights; 63% sit higher.
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.
A low area share in Beacon Heights doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Beacon Heights
Alerts for Beacon Heights 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Beacon Heights to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Beacon Heights
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beacon Heights | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Beverly Heights 3,252 · 0.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Newton 2,809 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Rundle Heights 5,175 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Overlanders 2,879 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Homesteader 6,059 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Highlands 2,677 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Beacon Heights (low), with Beverly Heights next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Beacon Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Beacon Heights 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Beacon Heights’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Beacon Heights.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Beacon Heights, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Beacon Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Beacon Heights
How is Beacon Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Beacon Heights A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Beacon Heights flood?
There is flood mapping for Beacon Heights on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Beacon Heights?
Expected earthquake damage in Beacon Heights comes to $0.013 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Beacon Heights at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Beacon Heights: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Is radon a problem in Beacon Heights?
Around Beacon Heights, 73 survey homes were tested and 1.4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).