Photo: RTBoughner at English Wikipedia · Public domainMackenzie’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 12% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Mackenzie: 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.008% a year. Seismic risk in Mackenzie sits near the middle: $0.026 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Mackenzie grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Mackenzie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Mackenzie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Mackenzie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Mackenzie grades C+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Mackenzie’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #210 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,852 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.
Little of the land around Mackenzie has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.3% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Mackenzie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Mackenzie burns at 0.008% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Mackenzie’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 5.9 km away.
Forest fuel covers 71% of the land close to Mackenzie and 83% across 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
In the upper half in British Columbia but far from Oliver (0.98%): Mackenzie ranks 104th of 255, at 0.008% a year.
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.
Some fire is mapped around Mackenzie, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Mackenzie
Flood studies whose area touches Mackenzie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Mackenzie; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Mackenzie.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Mackenzie floods.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Mackenzie $0.026 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
With $0.026 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Mackenzie is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Mackenzie, at $0.026, 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Mackenzie (53%).
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 Mackenzie’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 runs high around Mackenzie: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Mackenzie’s area, at 12%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Mackenzie (12%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%); 1.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Mackenzie sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Mackenzie as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Northern Interior health region
Weather and fire alerts for Mackenzie
Alerts for Mackenzie 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Mackenzie to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Mackenzie faces
Practical steps for Mackenzie’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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; Mackenzie’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Mackenzie’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Mackenzie 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 Mackenzie floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mackenzie
Is Mackenzie at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Mackenzie’s low band (0.3% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Mackenzie?
Expected earthquake damage in Mackenzie comes to $0.026 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Mackenzie flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Mackenzie, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Mackenzie?
The area’s survey found 12% of 208 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Mackenzie.
How is Mackenzie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Mackenzie grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).