Photo: Kyle Wilson · CC BY-SA 4.0Shaking costs buildings in Colwood $1.09 a year per $1,000 of value, 36 times the typical town’s
Fire seldom reaches Colwood: since 1986, 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.007% a year). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.8% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Colwood grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Colwood’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Colwood: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Colwood faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Colwood grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Colwood’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #192 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,812 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 55 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Colwood: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Colwood’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Colwood at 0.007% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 5.6 km from Colwood’s homes since 1986.
There is forest near Colwood’s homes (38% within 5 km) and more of it further out (69% 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
Colwood burns at 0.007% a year, 109th of 255 towns in British Columbia; the leader, Oliver, reaches 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.
Some fire is mapped around Colwood, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
Colwood is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Capital Regional District
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Colwood: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Capital Regional District holds the flood mapping that covers Colwood (2021), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Regional Coastal Flood Inundation Mapping Project | Capital Regional District | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Colwood 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 mapping is shown for Colwood to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Colwood $1.09 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 36.2 times the typical $0.030: Colwood’s $1.09 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in British Columbia: Colwood’s $1.09 against a median of $0.36, with Duncan 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Colwood: under 0.1% of them.
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 Colwood’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).
1.8% of homes tested around Colwood are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the South Vancouver Island health region: radon tests
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Colwood’s area has fewer, 1.8%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Colwood, 1.8% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as 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.
Few tests over the guideline: Colwood shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Colwood; 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 Colwood
Alerts for Colwood 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. |
Evacuation orders for Colwood come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Colwood’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colwood | Low | $1.09 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Langford 59,664 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.74 | 1.8% | Yes |
| View Royal 12,795 · 5.3 km | Low | $0.91 | 1.8% | Yes |
| New Songhees 1A 2,052 · 5.7 km | Low | $1.02 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Esquimalt 19,512 · 6.3 km | Low | $1.25 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Metchosin 5,207 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.56 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Victoria 103,888 · 10 km | Low | $0.66 | 1.8% | Yes |
Metchosin burns a little more than Colwood, 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 Colwood faces
Practical steps for Colwood’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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 Colwood’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Colwood’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Colwood takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Colwood.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Colwood
How big is the earthquake risk in Colwood?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Colwood’s buildings lose $1.09 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Colwood at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Colwood’s low band (0.3% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How is Colwood’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Colwood grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Colwood flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Colwood; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Colwood?
The area’s survey found 1.8% of 55 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Colwood.
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).