Photo: Jarcardo · CC BY-SA 3.0Shaking costs buildings in Pitt Meadows $0.47 a year per $1,000 of value, 16 times the typical town’s
Burn scars are few around Pitt Meadows, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.001% a year). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Pitt Meadows grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Pitt Meadows’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Pitt Meadows: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Pitt Meadows faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Pitt Meadows grades B for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Pitt Meadows’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #59 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,520 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.
Little of the land around Pitt Meadows has burned: 0.3% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Pitt Meadows’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Pitt Meadows burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Pitt Meadows is less wooded (22% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (45%).
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; Pitt Meadows, at 0.001%, comes 239th.
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.
Pitt Meadows 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.
3 flood studies cover Pitt Meadows, the newest from City of Coquitlam
Flood studies whose area touches Pitt Meadows, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
3 studies on the inventory touch Pitt Meadows, 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 |
| North Alouette and South Alouette Rivers Additional Floodplain Analysis | City of Maple Ridge | 2016 | final |
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Pitt Meadows 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Pitt Meadows 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Pitt Meadows: $0.47 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.
Roughly 15.8 times the typical $0.030: Pitt Meadows’ $0.47 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year; Pitt Meadows expects $0.47, and Duncan $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 Pitt Meadows: 1.5% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Pitt Meadows’ 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 low around Pitt Meadows: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Fraser North health region: radon tests
Pitt Meadows’ survey area reads 0% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Pitt Meadows (0%) 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.
Under 5% puts Pitt Meadows with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Pitt Meadows only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Pitt Meadows
Alerts for Pitt Meadows 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 Pitt Meadows 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)
How Pitt Meadows’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitt Meadows | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Anniedale 6,715 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Fraser Heights 17,688 · 6.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Port Coquitlam 67,724 · 7.1 km | Low | $0.52 | 0% | Yes |
| Maple Ridge 105,925 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Guildford 14,663 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| Birdland 10,745 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
The fire record around Anniedale is a touch heavier than Pitt Meadows’, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Pitt Meadows faces
Practical steps for Pitt Meadows’ 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.
- 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Pitt Meadows’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Pitt Meadows is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Pitt Meadows.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Pitt Meadows’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pitt Meadows
Does Pitt Meadows flood?
There is flood mapping for Pitt Meadows on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Pitt Meadows at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Pitt Meadows’ low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Pitt Meadows?
The area’s survey found 0% of 108 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Pitt Meadows.
How is Pitt Meadows’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Pitt Meadows grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Pitt Meadows?
About $0.47 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Pitt Meadows.
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).