Photo: Hameltion · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Bowen Island: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 2.5% of tested homes
Wildfire is rare near Bowen Island: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.15 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Bowen Island grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Bowen Island’s hazards
For Bowen Island, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bowen Island faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bowen Island grades B for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Bowen Island’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #57 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,518 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.
Few fires near Bowen Island: 0.2% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bowen Island’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Bowen Island burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
More forest grows near Bowen Island’s homes (85% within 5 km) than across 25 km (75%).
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
In the lower half in British Columbia: Bowen Island at 0.001% a year, 239th of 255, far from Oliver’s 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Bowen Island among them, though its rate is above zero; 7.5% rank higher.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Bowen Island
Flood studies whose area touches Bowen Island, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Bowen Island, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia, 76% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Bowen Island.
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 Bowen Island 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.”
Shaking is Bowen Island’s costliest hazard: $0.15 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.
Bowen Island’s $0.15 is about 5 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year in shaking damage; Bowen Island expects less, $0.15, and Duncan the most, $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 19% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Bowen Island.
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 Bowen Island 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).
Radon runs low around Bowen Island: 2.5% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi health region
Bowen Island’s survey area reads 2.5% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Bowen Island (2.5%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Bowen Island with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Bowen Island, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Bowen Island
Alerts for Bowen Island 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 Bowen Island 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 Bowen Island’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowen Island | Low | $0.15 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Electoral Area F, Sunshine Coast 2,691 · 12 km | Low | $0.22 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Gibsons 5,090 · 12 km | Low | $0.48 | 2.5% | None listed |
| West Vancouver 47,929 · 13 km | Low | $0.27 | 2.5% | Yes |
| Lions Bay 1,375 · 14 km | Low | $0.34 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Electoral Area E, Sunshine Coast 4,279 · 14 km | Low | $0.45 | 2.5% | None listed |
| Electoral Area A, Metro Vancouver 22,031 · 15 km | Low | $0.26 | 1.2% | Yes |
The fire record around Electoral Area E, Sunshine Coast is a touch heavier than Bowen Island’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bowen Island faces
Practical steps for Bowen Island’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Bowen Island sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Bowen Island, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Bowen Island’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Bowen Island floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bowen Island
Is Bowen Island at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Bowen Island’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2019), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bowen Island?
Expected earthquake damage in Bowen Island comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Bowen Island’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bowen Island B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Bowen Island flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Bowen Island (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Bowen Island?
2.5% of the 81 homes Health Canada tested around Bowen Island topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).