Photo: Kayoty · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Barriere comes out behind 97% of Canadian towns
Fire is a regular visitor: 16% of the land within 25 km of Barriere has burned since 1986 (0.40% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.011 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Barriere as elsewhere, 6.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Barriere a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Barriere’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Barriere: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Barriere faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Barriere grades D− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Barriere with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
A high wildfire band for Barriere: 42% within 5 km, 16% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Barriere’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
High: the land around Barriere burns at 0.40% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Barriere: 47% of the land within 5 km, 74% 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 British Columbia · highest of 256
Barriere ranks 18th of the 256 towns in British Columbia for burn rate, at 0.40% a year; Oliver leads with 0.98%.
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.
Barriere is one of the few of Canada’s 2,610 towns in the high band (1.9%); 0.2% rank very high.
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.
Flooding around Barriere is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Fraser Basin Council
Flood studies whose area touches Barriere, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Fraser Basin Council and others have studied flooding in areas that include Barriere: 2 studies, the latest from 2020.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thompson River Watershed Base Level Flood Hazard Mapping | Fraser Basin Council | 2020 | final |
| North Thompson River (Kamloops to Vavenby) Floodplain Mapping (including Barriere and Clearwater Rivers) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1982 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Barriere included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Barriere between the 1980s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Barriere.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Barriere’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Little shaking expected in Barriere: $0.011 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.
Barriere’s $0.011 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Barriere’s $0.011 against a median of $0.36; Duncan has $1.33.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
85% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Barriere.
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 Barriere’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).
6.4% of homes tested around Barriere are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Barriere reads 6.4%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Barriere’s area, at 6.4%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%).
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 Barriere 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 Barriere; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Thompson/Cariboo health region
Weather and fire alerts for Barriere
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Barriere; 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 Barriere, 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 Barriere
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barriere | High | $0.011 | 6.4% | Yes |
| Electoral Area O (Lower North Thompson), Thompson-Nicola 1,653 · 16 km | High | $0.010 | 6.4% | Yes |
Barriere’s high band tops its neighbours; Electoral Area O (Lower North Thompson), Thompson-Nicola is next (high).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Barriere faces
What to do about the hazards Barriere faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Barriere sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Barriere’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 Barriere floods.
- 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 Barriere’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Barriere
Does Barriere flood?
Barriere’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How is Barriere’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Barriere D−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Barriere at risk of wildfire?
Yes, by Canadian standards: Barriere’s band is high, with 16% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire counts against its Risk grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Barriere?
About $0.011 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Barriere.
Is radon a problem in Barriere?
In Health Canada’s survey, 6.4% of 109 homes tested in Barriere’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).