Mount Currie is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Pemberton Valley Dyking District Office
Fire seldom reaches Mount Currie: since 1986, 1.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.03% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.070 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is lower than usual: 2.5% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Mount Currie a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Mount Currie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Mount Currie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Mount Currie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Mount Currie: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Mount Currie’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.
Wildfire is rare near Mount Currie: 1.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.9% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Mount Currie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.03% of the land near Mount Currie burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
More forest grows near Mount Currie’s homes (69% within 5 km) than across 25 km (54%).
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
Mount Currie burns at 0.03% a year, 83rd of 256 towns in British Columbia; the leader, Oliver, reaches 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Mount Currie stays low, with 92%.
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 Mount Currie, from Pemberton Valley Dyking District Office: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Mount Currie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Mount Currie, Pemberton Valley Dyking District Office’s from 2018, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lillooet River Floodplain Mapping | Pemberton Valley Dyking District Office | 2018 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Mount Currie 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Mount Currie’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.
High seismic risk in Mount Currie: $0.070 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Mount Currie’s $0.070 is about 2.3 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Mount Currie’s $0.070 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.
28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Mount Currie, 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 Mount Currie’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 Mount Currie: 2.5% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 2.5% over the guideline, the area around Mount Currie is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Mount Currie’s area, at 2.5%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Mount Currie’s band, which holds 37%.
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 Mount Currie 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). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi health region
Weather and fire alerts for Mount Currie
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Mount Currie; 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. |
For fires near Mount Currie, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Mount Currie
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Currie | Low | $0.070 | 2.5% | Yes |
| Pemberton 3,620 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.038 | 2.5% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, Squamish-Lillooet 2,027 · 10 km | Moderate | $0.061 | 2.5% | Yes |
Electoral Area C, Squamish-Lillooet has the most fire around it, a moderate band against Mount Currie’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Mount Currie faces
Practical steps for Mount Currie’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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Mount Currie.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Mount Currie’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Mount Currie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Mount Currie’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mount Currie
How big is the earthquake risk in Mount Currie?
Expected earthquake damage in Mount Currie comes to $0.070 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Mount Currie flood?
There is flood mapping for Mount Currie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Mount Currie?
2.5% of the 81 homes Health Canada tested around Mount Currie topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Mount Currie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Mount Currie B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Mount Currie at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Mount Currie’s band is low, with 1.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).