Few places are as safe from hazards as Cameron Heights: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
Wildfire barely registers for Cameron Heights, at 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. Radon is lower than usual: 1.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Cameron Heights a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Cameron Heights’s hazards
For Cameron Heights, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Cameron Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Cameron Heights grades A+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Cameron Heights with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Cameron Heights has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Cameron Heights’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Cameron Heights burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 18 km from Cameron Heights’ homes since 1986.
With 0.5% forest fuel within 5 km and 0.6% within 25 km, the land around Cameron Heights gives a fire little to burn.
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); Cameron 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 Cameron 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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Cameron Heights (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Cameron Heights: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Government of Alberta holds the flood mapping that covers Cameron Heights (2024), linked below.
| 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 Cameron 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.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Cameron Heights.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Cameron Heights just $0.013 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.4 times the typical $0.030: Cameron Heights’ $0.013 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Alberta: Cameron Heights’ $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.
Earthquakes cost less around Cameron 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 Cameron 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). · Earthquake risk: the city of Edmonton
Radon runs low around Cameron Heights: 1.4% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Cameron Heights: 1.4% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Cameron Heights’ area, at 1.4%, is below 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.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Cameron Heights, 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 low area share in Cameron 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). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Capital Health
Where to get warnings in Cameron Heights
Alerts for Cameron 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Cameron Heights 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 Cameron Heights’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Heights | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Rhatigan Ridge 7,066 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Haddow 4,026 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Jamieson Place 3,813 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| River Valley Oleskiw 9,922 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Edgemont 5,059 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Ormsby Place 4,412 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Cameron Heights (low); Rhatigan Ridge comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cameron Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Cameron 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 Cameron Heights’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Cameron Heights takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Cameron Heights.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Cameron 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.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cameron Heights
Does Cameron Heights flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Cameron Heights; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Cameron Heights at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Cameron Heights since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Cameron Heights?
Around Cameron 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.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cameron Heights?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Cameron Heights $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Cameron Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cameron Heights grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).