Photo: The Interior · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in Blind Bay is higher than in 97% of Canadian towns
With 0.37% of the land around it burning each year, Blind Bay sits in the high wildfire band (15% within 25 km since 1986). Seismic risk runs low: $0.009 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Blind Bay: 6.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Blind Bay grades D− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Blind Bay’s hazards
For Blind Bay, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Blind Bay faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Blind Bay grades D− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Blind Bay’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #236 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,556 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Fire country: 15% of the land within 25 km of Blind Bay has burned since 1986, 8.2% within 5 km
Past fire around Blind Bay’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Blind Bay is 0.37%, against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town: the high band.
Forest thickens with distance from Blind Bay: 65% of the land within 5 km, 71% 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 255
The land around Blind Bay burns at 0.37% a year, the 19th highest rate of 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver tops it at 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.
Just 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough for the high band where Blind Bay sits; 0.2% 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.
Blind Bay is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Blind Bay: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship holds the flood mapping that covers Blind Bay (2025), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shuswap Region Floodplain Maps | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Blind Bay 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Blind Bay 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 Blind Bay: $0.009 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Blind Bay it is only $0.009, 0.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Blind Bay’s $0.009 sits under the median in British Columbia, $0.36, and well under Duncan’s $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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (86%) face more earthquake damage than Blind Bay.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Blind Bay.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Blind Bay: 6.4% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Blind Bay’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.4% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Blind Bay’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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Blind Bay, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
Whatever Blind Bay’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Thompson/Cariboo health region)
Where to get warnings in Blind Bay
Alerts for Blind Bay 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 Blind Bay to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Blind Bay’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blind Bay | High | $0.009 | 6.4% | Yes |
| Electoral Area F, Columbia-Shuswap 3,475 · 11 km | High | $0.010 | 6.4% | Yes |
| Salmon Arm 20,891 · 19 km | Moderate | $0.013 | 6.4% | Yes |
Electoral Area F, Columbia-Shuswap burns a little more than Blind Bay, in the same high band (high here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Blind Bay faces
Practical steps for Blind Bay’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Blind Bay’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Blind Bay until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Blind Bay without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Blind Bay, 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 Blind Bay
Is Blind Bay at risk of wildfire?
Wildfire is Blind Bay’s main hazard, band high: 15% of the land within 25 km burned between 1986 and 2025.
Does Blind Bay flood?
A flood study covers Blind Bay on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Blind Bay?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Blind Bay $0.009 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Blind Bay’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Blind Bay’s Hazard risk grade is D−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Blind Bay?
The area’s survey found 6.4% of 109 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Blind Bay.
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).