Photo: Straitgate · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Harrison Hot Springs: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Burn scars are few around Harrison Hot Springs, with 1.7% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.04% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.13 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 3% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Harrison Hot Springs grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Harrison Hot Springs’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Harrison Hot Springs: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Harrison Hot Springs faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Harrison Hot Springs grades B for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Harrison Hot Springs with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Harrison Hot Springs has burned: 0.3% within 5 km, 1.7% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Harrison Hot Springs’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Harrison Hot Springs burns at 0.04% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
There is forest near Harrison Hot Springs’ homes (56% within 5 km) and more of it further out (70% 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 256
Harrison Hot Springs sits mid-table in British Columbia: 74th of 256 towns, at 0.04% a year, well behind Oliver (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.
Harrison Hot Springs is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
Harrison Hot Springs is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Harrison Hot Springs: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2025 study by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship covers Harrison Hot Springs, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Fraser and Coquihalla Rivers | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Harrison Hot Springs 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Harrison Hot Springs’ homes are at risk.
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 Harrison Hot Springs: $0.13 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Harrison Hot Springs loses $0.13, 4.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.13, Harrison Hot Springs 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.
Harrison Hot Springs sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 22% are 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).
The loss is to Harrison Hot Springs’ 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).
3% of homes tested around Harrison Hot Springs are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Harrison Hot Springs’ area, at 3%, 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
Radon runs higher around Harrison Hot Springs than in most towns in British Columbia: 3% against 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 Harrison Hot Springs, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Harrison Hot Springs only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Fraser East health region)
Weather and fire alerts for Harrison Hot Springs
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Harrison Hot Springs; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Harrison Hot Springs, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Harrison Hot Springs’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harrison Hot Springs | Low | $0.13 | 3% | Yes |
| Kent 7,093 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.15 | 3% | Yes |
| Rosedale 2,401 · 12 km | Low | $0.10 | 3% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, Fraser Valley 1,155 · 14 km | Low | $0.082 | 3% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Kent (low), still no more than Harrison Hot Springs (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Harrison Hot Springs faces
What to do about the hazards Harrison Hot Springs 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. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Harrison Hot Springs’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Harrison Hot Springs floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Harrison Hot Springs sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Harrison Hot Springs’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Harrison Hot Springs
Is Harrison Hot Springs at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 1.7% of the land around Harrison Hot Springs since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Harrison Hot Springs flood?
Harrison Hot Springs’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Harrison Hot Springs?
Around Harrison Hot Springs, 100 survey homes were tested and 3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Harrison Hot Springs’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Harrison Hot Springs B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Harrison Hot Springs?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Harrison Hot Springs $0.13 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).