Photo: Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Kent: 1 on record, latest by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Little of the land around Kent has burned: 1.3% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.03% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.15 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Kent a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Kent’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Kent: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Kent faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Kent: B−
The grade weighs Kent’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: #102 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,592 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.
Few fires near Kent: 1.3% within 5 km, 1.3% within 25 km
Past fire around Kent’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Kent burns at 0.03% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest thickens with distance from Kent: 40% of the land within 5 km, 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 255
At 0.03% a year, Kent ranks 81st 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 Kent 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.
Kent 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 Kent: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Kent, Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship’s from 2025, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| 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
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Kent included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Kent’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Kent $0.15 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Kent loses $0.15, 5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.15, Kent 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.
15% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Kent, which places it in the upper third.
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 Kent’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 low around Kent: 3% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Fraser East health region
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Kent’s area, at 3%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; the survey area around Kent has 3%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Kent 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.
The survey sampled homes around Kent; 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 Kent
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kent; 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 Kent, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kent’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent | Low | $0.15 | 3% | Yes |
| Rosedale 2,401 · 5.3 km | Low | $0.10 | 3% | Yes |
| Harrison Hot Springs 2,148 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.13 | 3% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, Fraser Valley 1,155 · 14 km | Low | $0.082 | 3% | Yes |
| Skowkale 1,114 · 16 km | Low | $0.25 | 3% | None listed |
| Chilliwack 105,520 · 17 km | Low | $0.31 | 3% | Yes |
| Electoral Area E, Fraser Valley 1,748 · 18 km | Low | $0.19 | 3% | Yes |
Harrison Hot Springs burns a little more than Kent, 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 Kent faces
What to do about the hazards Kent 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Kent’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Kent takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Kent’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Kent.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kent
How big is the earthquake risk in Kent?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Kent $0.15 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Kent flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Kent; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Kent?
Around Kent, 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 Kent’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kent grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Kent at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 1.3% of the land around Kent since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).