Photo: Darren Kirby from Penticton, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Earthquakes are Campbell River’s biggest hazard: $0.35 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 12 times the norm
Fire seldom reaches Campbell River: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). In Health Canada’s survey, just 0.9% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Campbell River a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Campbell River’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Campbell River: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Campbell River faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Campbell River grades B− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Campbell River’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: #106 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,603 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Campbell River has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Campbell River’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Campbell River’s 0.001% is in the low band.
There is forest near Campbell River’s homes (59% within 5 km) and more of it further out (78% 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
Campbell River ranks 239th of the 255 towns in British Columbia for burn rate (0.001% a year), in the lower half; Oliver leads 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Campbell River stays low, with 92%.
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.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has mapped flooding for Campbell River (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Campbell River, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy holds the flood mapping that covers Campbell River (1990), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell and Quinsam Rivers Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1990 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Campbell River included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Campbell River floods.
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 Campbell River’s costliest hazard: $0.35 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.
At $0.35 per $1,000, Campbell River carries roughly 11.8 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in British Columbia: Campbell River’s $0.35 sits by the median of $0.36, while Duncan reaches $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.
Campbell River is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 5.6% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Campbell River’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).
0.9% of homes tested around Campbell River are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the North Vancouver Island health region: radon tests
Campbell River’s area, at 0.9%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Campbell River (0.9%) 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.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Campbell River, 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Campbell River can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Campbell River
Alerts for Campbell River 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 Campbell River 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)
Hazards in the places around Campbell River
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell River | Low | $0.35 | 0.9% | Yes |
| Electoral Area D (Oyster Bay - Buttle Lake), Strathcona 4,546 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.34 | 0.9% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, Strathcona 2,981 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.16 | 0.9% | None listed |
Electoral Area C, Strathcona burns a little more than Campbell River, 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 Campbell River faces
What to do about the hazards Campbell River 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Campbell River’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Campbell River’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Campbell River.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Campbell River takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Campbell River
Is Campbell River at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Campbell River has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Campbell River?
About $0.35 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Campbell River.
Does Campbell River flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Campbell River; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Campbell River’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Campbell River B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Campbell River?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0.9% of 106 homes tested in Campbell River’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).