Photo: Holger Steinhaus · CC BY-SA 3.019% of homes tested in Fernie’s area are above the radon guideline
Little of the land around Fernie has burned: 1.4% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.04% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Fernie as in most places, at $0.031 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fernie grades C for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Fernie’s hazards
For Fernie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fernie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Fernie grades C for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Fernie, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #222 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,245 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Fernie has burned: 0% within 5 km, 1.4% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Fernie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Fernie burns at 0.04% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 9.5 km from Fernie’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest crowds in on Fernie: 60% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 53% 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
At 0.04% a year, Fernie ranks 79th of the 255 towns in British Columbia; 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Fernie burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
Regional District of East Kootenay has mapped flooding for Fernie (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Fernie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Regional District of East Kootenay holds the flood mapping that covers Fernie (2019), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elk River Floodplain Mapping | Regional District of East Kootenay | 2019 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Fernie 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Fernie 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.
Expected shaking damage in Fernie: $0.031 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 $0.031 per $1,000, Fernie’s earthquake risk is the typical Canadian town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Fernie’s $0.031 against a median of $0.36; Duncan has $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Fernie (48%).
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Fernie is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
19% of homes tested around Fernie 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 East Kootenay health region: radon tests
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Fernie’s area has 19%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Fernie than in most towns in British Columbia: 19% over the guideline (1.8% is typical), 2.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Fernie, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go higher.
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.
Whatever Fernie’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Fernie
Alerts for Fernie 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 Fernie 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 Fernie’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fernie | Low | $0.031 | 19% | Yes |
| Electoral Area A, East Kootenay 2,092 · 11 km | Moderate | $0.029 | 19% | Yes |
Next door, Electoral Area A, East Kootenay sits in a moderate fire band; Fernie is low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Fernie faces
What to do about the hazards Fernie 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Fernie, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Fernie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Fernie without grading them.
- 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 Fernie until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fernie
How big is the earthquake risk in Fernie?
Expected earthquake damage in Fernie comes to $0.031 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Fernie flood?
A flood study covers Fernie on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Fernie at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 1.4% of the land around Fernie since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Fernie?
Around Fernie, 105 survey homes were tested and 19% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Fernie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Fernie C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).