Photo: Dennis Sylvester Hurd · CC0New Westminster has one of Canada’s highest earthquake risks: $0.43 a year per $1,000, 14 times the typical town’s
Burn scars are few around New Westminster, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.003% a year). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. New Westminster grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about New Westminster’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for New Westminster: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What New Westminster faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in New Westminster: B
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like New Westminster with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #56 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,512 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 New Westminster: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where New Westminster’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around New Westminster fire takes 0.003% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Nothing inside 5 km of New Westminster’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 5.4 km off.
Homes in New Westminster sit on open or built-up ground (2.9% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 30%.
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
Oliver tops the 255 towns in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; New Westminster, at 0.003%, comes 191st.
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.
New Westminster is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
2 flood studies cover New Westminster, the newest from City of Coquitlam
Flood studies whose area touches New Westminster, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch New Westminster, the newest City of Coquitlam’s from 2017, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coquitlam, Fraser, Pitt Rivers Floodplain Mapping | City of Coquitlam | 2017 | final |
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
76% of towns in British Columbia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; New Westminster has one too.
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 New Westminster 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.
High seismic risk in New Westminster: $0.43 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.
At $0.43 per $1,000, New Westminster carries roughly 14.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around New Westminster ($0.43) matches the middle in British Columbia ($0.36), far from Duncan’s $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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than New Westminster: 4.2% of them.
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 New Westminster’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).
Little radon around New Westminster: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around New Westminster: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
New Westminster’s area, at 0%, is below 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.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and New Westminster; 63% 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 New Westminster 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). · Radon tests: the Fraser North health region
Weather and fire alerts for New Westminster
Alerts for New Westminster 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 New Westminster 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)
Hazards in the places around New Westminster
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Westminster | Low | $0.43 | 0% | Yes |
| East Burnaby 17,233 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | Yes |
| Edmonds 34,805 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Bridgeview 3,511 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Buckingham Heights 8,794 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
| Brownsville 23,515 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Royal Oak 18,364 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.36 | 0% | None listed |
Nowhere around New Westminster burns more: East Burnaby, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what New Westminster faces
What to do about the hazards New Westminster 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, New Westminster takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in New Westminster.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around New Westminster’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; New Westminster’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in New Westminster
How is New Westminster’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
New Westminster’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is New Westminster at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of New Westminster has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in New Westminster?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 108 homes tested in New Westminster’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does New Westminster flood?
The inventory lists a study touching New Westminster; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in New Westminster?
Expected earthquake damage in New Westminster comes to $0.43 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).