Photo: Kenny Louie from Vancouver, Canada · CC BY 2.0Earthquakes are Buckingham Heights’ biggest hazard: $0.36 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 12 times the norm
Burn scars are few around Buckingham Heights, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.003% a year). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Buckingham Heights grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Buckingham Heights’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Buckingham Heights: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Buckingham Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Buckingham Heights: B
Seismic risk and radon set Buckingham Heights’ grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #35 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,485 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Buckingham Heights: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Buckingham Heights’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.003% a year keeps Buckingham Heights in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Buckingham Heights’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 9.1 km out.
The forest starts beyond town: 1.8% of the land within 5 km of Buckingham Heights’ homes is forest fuel, against 32% 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
Oliver tops the 255 towns in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; Buckingham Heights, at 0.003%, comes 191st.
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.
Buckingham Heights is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
No flood study is listed for Buckingham Heights
Flood studies whose area touches Buckingham Heights, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Buckingham Heights has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Buckingham Heights has no study, where 76% of towns in British Columbia have one against 58% nationally.
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 Buckingham 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.”
High seismic risk in Buckingham Heights: $0.36 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 12 times the typical $0.030: Buckingham Heights’ $0.36 marks real seismic exposure.
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Burnaby, Buckingham Heights included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Buckingham Heights at $0.36 beside a median in British Columbia of $0.36, with Duncan on top at $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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Buckingham Heights: 4.9% of them.
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 loss is to Buckingham Heights’ buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Buckingham Heights: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Buckingham Heights: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Buckingham Heights it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Buckingham Heights shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Buckingham Heights 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). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Fraser North health region
Weather and fire alerts for Buckingham Heights
Alerts for Buckingham 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 Buckingham 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)
Hazards in the places around Buckingham Heights
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckingham Heights | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Edmonds 34,805 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Royal Oak 18,364 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Deer Lake 8,417 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| East Burnaby 17,233 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Metrotown 36,594 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Lake City 3,240 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
The fire record around Deer Lake is a touch heavier than Buckingham Heights’, 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 Buckingham Heights faces
Practical steps for Buckingham Heights’ 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
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Buckingham Heights’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Buckingham Heights’.
- 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 Buckingham Heights.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Buckingham Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Buckingham Heights
Is Buckingham Heights at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Buckingham Heights’ low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Buckingham Heights?
Expected earthquake damage in Buckingham Heights comes to $0.36 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Buckingham Heights flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Buckingham Heights, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Buckingham Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Buckingham Heights’ Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Buckingham Heights?
The area’s survey found 0% of 108 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Buckingham Heights.
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).