Photo: Sam Beebe · CC BY 2.0Flood mapping exists for Kitimat: 1 on record, latest by Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy
Burn scars are few around Kitimat, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.006% a year). Seismic risk in Kitimat sits near the middle: $0.052 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Kitimat is ordinary for Canada: 5.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Kitimat a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Kitimat’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Kitimat: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Kitimat faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kitimat grades B for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Kitimat’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #26 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,413 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Few fires near Kitimat: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kitimat’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.006% a year keeps Kitimat in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Nothing inside 5 km of Kitimat’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 6.7 km off.
The ring nearest Kitimat is the most wooded: 71% forest fuel within 5 km against 66% 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
Kitimat sits mid-table in British Columbia: 115th of 255 towns, at 0.006% 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Kitimat among them, though its rate is above zero; 7.5% 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.
A flood study covers Kitimat, from Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Kitimat, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy holds the flood mapping that covers Kitimat (1982), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitimat River Floodplain Mapping (including Hirsch Creek) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1982 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Kitimat 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.
Flood mapping is shown for Kitimat 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Expected shaking damage in Kitimat: $0.052 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 $0.052 per $1,000, Kitimat’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year in shaking damage; Kitimat expects less, $0.052, and Duncan the most, $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 30% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Kitimat.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Kitimat’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Kitimat: 5.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Northwest health region: radon tests
Around Kitimat, 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
Radon runs higher around Kitimat than in most towns in British Columbia: 5.2% over the guideline (1.8% is typical), 1.4% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Kitimat’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Kitimat can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Kitimat
Alerts for Kitimat 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 Kitimat 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)
Get ready for what Kitimat faces
Practical steps for Kitimat’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- 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 Kitimat floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Kitimat’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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Kitimat sits in.
- 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 Kitimat’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kitimat
Does Kitimat flood?
Kitimat’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 big is the earthquake risk in Kitimat?
Expected earthquake damage in Kitimat comes to $0.052 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Kitimat?
The area’s survey found 5.2% of 211 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Kitimat.
How is Kitimat’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Kitimat B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Kitimat at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Kitimat’s low band (0.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
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).