Photo: https://www.flickr.com/people/sillygwailo/ - sillygwailo / Richard Eriksson · CC BY 2.0Earthquakes are Heights’ biggest hazard: $0.36 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 12 times the norm
Burn scars are few around Heights, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.004% a year). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Heights a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Heights’s hazards
For Heights, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Heights grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Heights’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Heights: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Heights’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Heights’ 0.004% is in the low band.
Heights’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 13 km away.
Within 5 km of Heights, 10% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 44%.
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; Heights, at 0.004%, comes 144th.
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.
Some fire is mapped around Heights, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
City of Vancouver has mapped flooding for Heights (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Heights, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
City of Vancouver studied flooding in an area that includes Heights (2014); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment | City of Vancouver | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Heights is one of the 76% of towns in British Columbia with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Heights to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
High seismic risk in 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.
At $0.36 per $1,000, Heights carries roughly 12 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Heights ($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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Heights.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Burnaby
0% of homes tested around Heights are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Fraser North health region
At 0% over the guideline, the area around Heights is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Heights’ area, at 0%, is below 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.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Heights, 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Heights’ included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Heights
Alerts for 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 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 Heights
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heights | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Brentwood 22,170 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Holdom 7,976 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Hastings-Sunrise 36,072 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Lochdale 7,463 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Broadview 8,008 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Burrard Inlet 3 2,820 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.23 | 2.5% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Brentwood (low), still no more than Heights (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Heights 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Heights.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Heights.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Heights’ included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Heights
How is Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Heights B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Heights flood?
There is flood mapping for Heights on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Heights at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Heights has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Heights?
Expected earthquake damage in Heights comes to $0.36 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Heights?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 108 homes tested in Heights’ 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).