Photo: Sam Beebe · CC BY 2.0Hazard risk in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine is lower than in 89% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine has burned: 0.5% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.01% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.011 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine is ordinary for Canada: 5.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s hazards
For Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine grades A for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine 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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine: 0.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.2% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.01% of the land a year around Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Within 5 km of Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, 55% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 71%.
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
At 0.01% a year, Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine ranks 87th of the 256 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 Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine 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.
2 flood studies cover Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, the newest from Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Flood studies whose area touches Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship’s in 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floodplain Mapping in BC - Bulkley and Skeena River – Summary Report and Lakelse Lake and River – Summary Report | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2024 | final |
| Skeena and Bulkley Rivers at Hazelton Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1994 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
76% of towns in British Columbia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine between the 1990s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s 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.
Little shaking expected in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine: $0.011 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.
Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s $0.011 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, at $0.011, is below the median of $0.36.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
85% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
5.2% of homes tested around Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Northwest health region: radon tests
Around Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, 5.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s area, at 5.2%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%), and 1.4% 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine; 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 Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine faces
What to do about the hazards Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine sits in.
- 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 Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine
Is radon a problem in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5.2% of 211 homes tested in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine?
About $0.011 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine.
Does Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine flood?
Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How is Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.5% of the land within 25 km of Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).