Photo: Andybremner2012 · CC BY-SA 4.0On hazards, Lillooet comes out behind 97% of Canadian towns
With 0.40% of the land around it burning each year, Lillooet sits in the high wildfire band (16% within 25 km since 1986). Earthquake risk in Lillooet is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.037 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 6.4% of homes tested in Lillooet’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Lillooet a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Lillooet’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lillooet: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lillooet faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lillooet grades D− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Lillooet’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
A high wildfire band for Lillooet: 20% within 5 km, 16% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lillooet’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.40% of the land a year, Lillooet’s burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Lillooet is less wooded (49% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (60%).
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
In the top quarter in British Columbia: Lillooet ranks 19th of 256 at 0.40% a year, with Oliver first 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.
Lillooet is one of the few of Canada’s 2,610 towns in the high band (1.9%); 0.2% rank very high.
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.
No flood study is listed for Lillooet
Flood studies whose area touches Lillooet, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Lillooet has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia, 76% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Lillooet.
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 Lillooet’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.”
Expected shaking damage in Lillooet: $0.037 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.
With $0.037 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Lillooet is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.2 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Lillooet’s $0.037 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 Lillooet (45%).
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 Lillooet’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 Lillooet: 6.4% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Thompson/Cariboo health region: radon tests
Around Lillooet, 6.4% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Lillooet (6.4%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
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 Lillooet’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.
One home in Lillooet can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Lillooet
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lillooet; 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 Lillooet 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 Lillooet faces
Practical steps for Lillooet’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Lillooet.
- 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 Lillooet’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lillooet is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lillooet’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lillooet
How is Lillooet’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lillooet’s Hazard risk grade is D−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Lillooet?
The area’s survey found 6.4% of 109 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Lillooet.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lillooet?
Expected earthquake damage in Lillooet comes to $0.037 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Lillooet flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Lillooet, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Lillooet at risk of wildfire?
Wildfire is Lillooet’s main hazard, band high: 16% of the land within 25 km burned between 1986 and 2024.
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).