Photo: ChrisStubbs · CC BY-SA 3.0Earthquakes are Lougheed’s biggest hazard: $0.36 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 12 times the norm
Burn scars are few around Lougheed, 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. Hazard risk gives Lougheed a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Lougheed’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lougheed: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lougheed faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lougheed: B
The grade weighs Lougheed’s 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: 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.
Little of the land around Lougheed has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Lougheed’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Lougheed at 0.003% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Lougheed’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 14 km out.
Forest thickens with distance from Lougheed: 8.9% of the land within 5 km, 36% 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; Lougheed, 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Lougheed 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.
City of Coquitlam has mapped flooding for Lougheed (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lougheed: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2017 study by City of Coquitlam covers Lougheed, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coquitlam, Fraser, Pitt Rivers Floodplain Mapping | City of Coquitlam | 2017 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Lougheed with 76% of towns in British Columbia; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Lougheed’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
Shaking is Lougheed’s costliest hazard: $0.36 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Lougheed loses $0.36, 12 times as much.
Lougheed shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Burnaby.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Lougheed’s $0.36 is close to the median in British Columbia, $0.36; Duncan is highest 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 Lougheed.
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 Lougheed’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).
0% of homes tested around Lougheed are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Fraser North health region
Fewer homes than usual test high around Lougheed: 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 Lougheed it is 0%.
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 Lougheed, 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 Lougheed; 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 Lougheed
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lougheed; 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 Lougheed, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Lougheed
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lougheed | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Lake City 3,240 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Burnaby Mountain 9,248 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| East Burnaby 17,233 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Bainbridge 3,015 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Montecito 10,734 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| New Westminster 92,124 · 5.1 km | Low | $0.43 | 0% | Yes |
The fire record around Lake City is a touch heavier than Lougheed’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 Lougheed faces
What to do about the hazards Lougheed 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Lougheed’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Lougheed until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Lougheed without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Lougheed’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lougheed
How is Lougheed’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lougheed’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Lougheed flood?
A flood study covers Lougheed on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Lougheed?
Around Lougheed, 108 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Lougheed at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Lougheed since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lougheed?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Lougheed $0.36 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).