Photo: (WT-shared) Kazbar at wts wikivoyage · Public domainOn hazards, Cache Creek comes out behind almost every Canadian town
Wildfire is Cache Creek’s dominant hazard: 46% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 1.17% a year. Seismic risk in Cache Creek sits near the middle: $0.018 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Cache Creek as elsewhere, 6.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Cache Creek a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Cache Creek’s hazards
For Cache Creek, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Cache Creek faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cache Creek: D−
The grade weighs Cache Creek’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Fire country: 46% of the land within 25 km of Cache Creek has burned since 1986, 45% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Cache Creek’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Cache Creek is 1.17%, against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town: the very high band.
There is forest near Cache Creek’s homes (9.5% within 5 km) and more of it further out (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 256
First of 256 in British Columbia: Cache Creek at 1.17% a year, ahead of Oliver (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.
Cache Creek is in the very high band, with only 0.2% of Canada’s 2,610 towns.
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.
Cache Creek is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Fraser Basin Council
Flood studies whose area touches Cache Creek, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Cache Creek, the newest Fraser Basin Council’s from 2020, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thompson River Watershed Base Level Flood Hazard Mapping | Fraser Basin Council | 2020 | final |
| Bonaparte River Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
76% of towns in British Columbia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Cache Creek has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Cache Creek between the 1990s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Cache Creek.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Cache Creek.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Cache Creek $0.018 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 $0.018 per $1,000, Cache Creek’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.6 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year in shaking damage; Cache Creek expects less, $0.018, 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.
Cache Creek is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 68% of the 2,611 towns are 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).
For Cache Creek the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
6.4% of homes tested around Cache Creek are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Cache Creek’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.4% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Cache Creek (6.4%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Cache Creek is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have 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, Cache Creek’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Thompson/Cariboo health region
Where to get warnings in Cache Creek
Alerts for Cache Creek 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 Cache Creek to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Cache Creek’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cache Creek | Very high | $0.018 | 6.4% | Yes |
| Ashcroft 1,744 · 9.2 km | Very high | $0.029 | 6.4% | Yes |
Ashcroft (very high) has the heaviest fire record of Cache Creek’s neighbours, and Cache Creek (very high) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cache Creek faces
What to do about the hazards Cache Creek faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Cache Creek.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Cache Creek.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Cache Creek takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Cache Creek’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cache Creek
Is Cache Creek at risk of wildfire?
Yes, by Canadian standards: Cache Creek’s band is very high, with 46% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire counts against its Risk grade.
How is Cache Creek’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Cache Creek D−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cache Creek?
About $0.018 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Cache Creek.
Is radon a problem in Cache Creek?
In Health Canada’s survey, 6.4% of 109 homes tested in Cache Creek’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Cache Creek flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Cache Creek; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
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).