Bearspaw faces fewer hazards than 98% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Bearspaw: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Bearspaw grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Bearspaw’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Bearspaw: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Bearspaw faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Bearspaw: A+
Two inputs always count for Bearspaw, 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. The radon share rests on 73 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Bearspaw: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bearspaw’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Bearspaw each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 23 km from Bearspaw’s homes, none within 5 km.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Bearspaw: forest fuel is 1.1% within 5 km and 0.5% within 25 km.
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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Bearspaw, as around 386 of the 478 towns, it rounds to 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Bearspaw, burning rounds to zero.
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.
No flood study is listed for Bearspaw
Flood studies whose area touches Bearspaw, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Bearspaw, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Bearspaw; in Alberta, 46% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Bearspaw’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
Little shaking expected in Bearspaw: $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.
Bearspaw’s $0.013 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Bearspaw shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Edmonton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Alberta: Bearspaw’s $0.013 against $0.013; Black Diamond reaches $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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (75%) face more earthquake damage than Bearspaw.
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 Bearspaw’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).
1.4% of homes tested around Bearspaw are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Bearspaw’s area, at 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Alberta (7.5%), the area around Bearspaw has fewer high tests: 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Bearspaw, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Bearspaw can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Capital Health
Weather and fire alerts for Bearspaw
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Bearspaw; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
For fires near Bearspaw, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Bearspaw
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bearspaw | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Skyrattler 2,956 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Ermineskin 7,483 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Twin Brooks 5,102 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| MacEwan 6,102 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Blue Quill 4,567 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Cavanagh 7,300 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Bearspaw has the most fire on record (low); Skyrattler follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bearspaw faces
What to do about the hazards Bearspaw 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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Bearspaw’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Bearspaw’s figure is its subdivision’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 Bearspaw.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Bearspaw is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bearspaw
Is radon a problem in Bearspaw?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.4% of 73 homes tested in Bearspaw’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Bearspaw at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Bearspaw has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bearspaw?
Expected earthquake damage in Bearspaw comes to $0.013 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Bearspaw’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Bearspaw’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Bearspaw flood?
Nothing is listed for Bearspaw on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).