Photo: Kenny Louie from Vancouver, Canada · CC BY 2.0Earthquakes are Deer Lake’s biggest hazard: $0.36 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 12 times the norm
Wildfire is rare near Deer Lake: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.004% 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. Deer Lake grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Deer Lake’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Deer Lake: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Deer Lake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Deer Lake grades B for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Deer Lake, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #35 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,485 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Deer Lake: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Deer Lake’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.004% of the land a year around Deer Lake, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Deer Lake’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 11 km out.
Close to Deer Lake there is little to burn (2% forest fuel within 5 km), but 36% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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: Deer Lake at 0.004% a year, 144th 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Deer Lake reads low, with 92% of them; only 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 Deer Lake
Flood studies whose area touches Deer Lake, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Deer Lake; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Deer Lake 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Deer Lake.
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 Deer Lake: $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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Deer Lake loses $0.36, 12 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Deer Lake ($0.36) matches the middle in British Columbia ($0.36), far from 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.
Only 4.9% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Deer Lake.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Deer Lake’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Burnaby
Little radon around Deer Lake: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Fraser North health region: radon tests
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Deer Lake’s area has fewer, 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Deer Lake than in most towns in British Columbia: 0% against 1.8%.
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 Deer Lake, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Deer Lake; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Deer Lake
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Deer Lake; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Deer Lake, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Deer Lake
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deer Lake | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Holdom 7,976 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Garden Village 6,492 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Brentwood 22,170 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Broadview 8,008 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Bainbridge 3,015 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Buckingham Heights 8,794 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
Deer Lake’s low band tops its neighbours; Holdom is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Deer Lake faces
What to do about the hazards Deer Lake 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.
- 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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Deer Lake’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Deer Lake without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Deer Lake’s figure is its subdivision’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 Deer Lake until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Deer Lake
How big is the earthquake risk in Deer Lake?
Expected earthquake damage in Deer Lake comes to $0.36 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Deer Lake flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Deer Lake’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Deer Lake at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Deer Lake since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Deer Lake?
Around Deer Lake, 108 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Deer Lake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Deer Lake’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).