Photo: Kenny Louie from Vancouver, Canada · CC BY 2.0Earthquakes are Lake City’s biggest hazard: $0.36 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 12 times the norm
Wildfire is rare near Lake City: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.004% a year. In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Lake City grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Lake City’s hazards
For Lake City, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Lake City faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lake City: B
Seismic risk and radon set Lake City’s 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: 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.
Wildfire is rare near Lake City: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lake City’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.004% of the land a year around Lake City, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 13 km from Lake City’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest fuel rises from 4.7% within 5 km of Lake City to 36% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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: Lake City 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.
Lake City 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Lake City
Flood studies whose area touches Lake City, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Lake City has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
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 Lake City.
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 Lake City 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.”
Shaking is Lake City’s costliest hazard: $0.36 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.
Lake City’s $0.36 is about 12 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Lake City doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Burnaby.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Lake City 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.
Only 4.9% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Lake City.
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 Lake City.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
0% of homes tested around Lake City are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Lake City’s area has fewer, 0%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Fraser North health region as a whole, not for Lake City alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Lake City 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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Lake City’s band, which holds 37%.
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, Lake City’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Lake City
Alerts for Lake City 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 Lake City to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Lake City
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake City | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Bainbridge 3,015 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Montecito 10,734 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Lougheed 15,442 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| East Burnaby 17,233 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Buckingham Heights 8,794 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Lochdale 7,463 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Lake City has the most fire on record (low); Bainbridge follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lake City faces
Practical steps for Lake City’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Lake City’s included.
- 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 Lake City.
- 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 Lake City sits in.
- 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 Lake City floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lake City
Is Lake City at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Lake City’s band is low, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lake City?
About $0.36 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Lake City.
How is Lake City’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lake City B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Lake City?
0% of the 108 homes Health Canada tested around Lake City topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Lake City flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Lake City (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).