Photo: Britcruise · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Burns Lake: wildfire moderate, radon over the guideline in 12% of tested homes
The burn rate around Burns Lake is 0.09% a year (3.4% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Seismic risk runs low: $0.008 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Burns Lake grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Burns Lake’s hazards
For Burns Lake, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Burns Lake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Burns Lake: B+
Seismic risk and radon set Burns Lake’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
A moderate wildfire record for Burns Lake: 3.4% within 25 km burned, 0.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Burns Lake’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Burns Lake burns at 0.09% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Burns Lake is less wooded (60% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (69%).
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 256
The land around Burns Lake burns at 0.09% a year, the 57th highest rate of 256 towns in British Columbia; Oliver tops it at 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.
Burns Lake is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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 Burns Lake
Flood studies whose area touches Burns Lake, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Burns Lake, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Burns Lake has no flood study on file, though 76% of towns in British Columbia do (Canada: 58%).
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 Burns 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Burns Lake just $0.008 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.008 per $1,000, Burns Lake carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year in shaking damage; Burns Lake expects less, $0.008, and Duncan the most, $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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (87%) face more earthquake damage than Burns 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Burns Lake is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Burns Lake: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Burns Lake’s survey area reads 12% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Northern Interior health region as a whole, not for Burns Lake alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Burns Lake, 12% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.9% over 600, against a median of 1.8% in British Columbia.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Burns Lake, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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, Burns Lake’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Burns Lake
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Burns 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 Burns Lake, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Burns Lake’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burns Lake | Moderate | $0.008 | 12% | None listed |
| Electoral Area B, Bulkley-Nechako 1,769 · 3.3 km | Moderate | $0.010 | 12% | None listed |
Electoral Area B, Bulkley-Nechako burns a little more than Burns Lake, in the same moderate band (moderate here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Burns Lake faces
Practical steps for Burns Lake’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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, Burns Lake’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 Burns Lake.
- 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 Burns Lake 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 Burns Lake floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Burns Lake
Is radon a problem in Burns Lake?
12% of the 208 homes Health Canada tested around Burns Lake topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Burns Lake flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Burns Lake (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Burns Lake at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Burns Lake’s band is moderate, with 3.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Burns Lake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Burns Lake B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Burns Lake?
Expected earthquake damage in Burns Lake comes to $0.008 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).