Photo: John Shorten · CC BY 4.0Coquitlam has one of Canada’s highest earthquake risks: $0.33 a year per $1,000, 11 times the typical town’s
Little of the land around Coquitlam 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. Coquitlam grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Coquitlam’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Coquitlam: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Coquitlam faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Coquitlam grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Coquitlam’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: #34 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,469 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.
Little of the land around Coquitlam has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Coquitlam’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Coquitlam burns at 0.003% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The nearer ring around Coquitlam is less wooded (35% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (46%).
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 Coquitlam (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, Coquitlam 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.
Coquitlam is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by City of Coquitlam
Flood studies whose area touches Coquitlam, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
City of Coquitlam and others have studied flooding in areas that include Coquitlam: 2 studies, the latest from 2017.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coquitlam, Fraser, Pitt Rivers Floodplain Mapping | City of Coquitlam | 2017 | final |
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Coquitlam is one of the 76% of towns in British Columbia with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 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 Coquitlam.
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.
High seismic risk in Coquitlam: $0.33 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 $0.33 per $1,000, Coquitlam carries roughly 11 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Coquitlam’s $0.33 is close to the median in British Columbia, $0.36; Duncan is 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 Coquitlam: 5.9% 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).
The loss is to Coquitlam’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
0% of homes tested around Coquitlam are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Coquitlam: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Fraser North health region, Coquitlam included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Coquitlam it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Coquitlam is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Coquitlam 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 Coquitlam
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Coquitlam; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Coquitlam come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Coquitlam
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coquitlam | Low | $0.33 | 0% | Yes |
| Port Moody 38,285 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.32 | 0% | None listed |
| Port Coquitlam 67,724 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.52 | 0% | Yes |
| Anmore 2,508 · 5.7 km | Low | $0.19 | 0% | None listed |
| Lougheed 15,442 · 6.0 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Burnaby Mountain 9,248 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Port Mann 5,988 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
Anmore burns a little more than Coquitlam, 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 Coquitlam faces
What to do about the hazards Coquitlam 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
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Coquitlam until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Coquitlam’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Coquitlam without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Coquitlam’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Coquitlam
How is Coquitlam’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Coquitlam B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Coquitlam flood?
A flood study covers Coquitlam on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Coquitlam at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Coquitlam has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Coquitlam?
About $0.33 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Coquitlam.
Is radon a problem in Coquitlam?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 108 homes tested in Coquitlam’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).