Photo: Northwest · CC BY-SA 4.0Shaking costs buildings in Royal Oak $0.36 a year per $1,000 of value, 12 times the typical town’s
Little of the land around Royal Oak has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 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. Royal Oak grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Royal Oak’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Royal Oak: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Royal Oak faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Royal Oak grades B for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Royal Oak, 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 Royal Oak: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Royal Oak’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.003% of the land around Royal Oak each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Royal Oak’s homes came within 7.9 km, never inside 5 km.
31% of the land within 25 km of Royal Oak is forest fuel, yet only 1.2% within 5 km of its 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
Some fire is mapped around Royal Oak (0.003% a year), but it ranks only 191st of 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver has 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, Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak
Flood studies whose area touches Royal Oak, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Royal Oak on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak.
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 Royal Oak: $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, Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak ($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.
Royal Oak is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 4.9% rank higher.
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 model counts damage to Royal Oak’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: the city of Burnaby
Little radon around Royal Oak: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Fraser North health region
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Royal Oak’s area, at 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Royal Oak’s 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 Royal Oak, 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 Royal Oak; 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 Royal Oak
Alerts for Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak 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)
How Royal Oak’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Oak | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Buckingham Heights 8,794 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Metrotown 36,594 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| South Slope 8,989 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Edmonds 34,805 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Garden Village 6,492 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Deer Lake 8,417 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
Garden Village burns a little more than Royal Oak, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Royal Oak faces
What to do about the hazards Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Royal Oak’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Royal Oak
Is radon a problem in Royal Oak?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 108 homes tested in Royal Oak’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Royal Oak?
Expected earthquake damage in Royal Oak comes to $0.36 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Royal Oak’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Royal Oak B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Royal Oak at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Royal Oak has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Royal Oak flood?
Nothing is listed for Royal Oak on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with 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).