Photo: waferboard · CC BY 2.019% of homes tested in Cranbrook’s area are above the radon guideline
The burn rate around Cranbrook is 0.22% a year (8.4% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Cranbrook as in most places, at $0.019 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Cranbrook grades C for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Cranbrook’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cranbrook: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cranbrook faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cranbrook: C
Seismic risk and radon set Cranbrook’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #217 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,051 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.
Some fire around Cranbrook: 8.4% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Cranbrook’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Cranbrook burns at 0.22% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Cranbrook’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 5.2 km away.
Within 5 km of Cranbrook, 38% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 54%.
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
Cranbrook ranks 30th of the 255 towns in British Columbia for burn rate, at 0.22% a year; Oliver leads with 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.
Cranbrook 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.
No flood study is listed for Cranbrook
Flood studies whose area touches Cranbrook, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Cranbrook has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Cranbrook has no study, where 76% of towns in British Columbia have one against 58% nationally.
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 Cranbrook 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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Cranbrook: $0.019 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.
Cranbrook’s $0.019 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.6 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.019, Cranbrook is below the typical town 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Cranbrook than in 66% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Cranbrook’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).
Radon runs high around Cranbrook: 19% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A higher share than most: 19% of tested homes around Cranbrook, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Cranbrook doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the East Kootenay health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Cranbrook’s area, at 19%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%), and 2.9% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
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 Cranbrook, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Cranbrook only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Cranbrook
Alerts for Cranbrook 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 Cranbrook 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 Cranbrook
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cranbrook | Moderate | $0.019 | 19% | None listed |
| Electoral Area C, East Kootenay 7,006 · 4.4 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 19% | None listed |
Cranbrook’s moderate band tops its neighbours; Electoral Area C, East Kootenay is next (moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cranbrook faces
Practical steps for Cranbrook’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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Cranbrook’s.
- 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 Cranbrook.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Cranbrook’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, Cranbrook takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cranbrook
Does Cranbrook flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Cranbrook (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cranbrook?
Expected earthquake damage in Cranbrook comes to $0.019 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Cranbrook’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Cranbrook C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Cranbrook at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Cranbrook’s band is moderate, with 8.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Cranbrook?
19% of the 105 homes Health Canada tested around Cranbrook topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).