Photo: Sam Beebe · CC BY 2.0Hazards in Prince Rupert: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 5.2% of tested homes
Wildfire barely registers for Prince Rupert, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.096 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Prince Rupert a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Prince Rupert’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Prince Rupert: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Prince Rupert faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Prince Rupert: B−
Seismic risk and radon set Prince Rupert’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #101 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,584 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 Prince Rupert has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Prince Rupert’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Prince Rupert burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
The ring nearest Prince Rupert is the most wooded: 83% forest fuel within 5 km against 72% within 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Prince Rupert, as for 7 of the 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver tops the list 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Prince Rupert is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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 Prince Rupert
Flood studies whose area touches Prince Rupert, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Prince Rupert has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Prince Rupert.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Prince Rupert.
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 Prince Rupert $0.096 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.
Roughly 3.2 times the typical $0.030: Prince Rupert’s $0.096 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Prince Rupert’s $0.096 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.
Prince Rupert sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 26% are higher.
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 Prince Rupert’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).
Some radon around Prince Rupert: 5.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Northwest health region
5.2% of tested homes around Prince Rupert were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Prince Rupert (5.2%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%); 1.4% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Prince Rupert, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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 Prince Rupert 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 Prince Rupert
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Prince Rupert; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Prince Rupert, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Prince Rupert faces
Practical steps for Prince Rupert’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
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Prince Rupert until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Prince Rupert’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Prince Rupert without grading them.
- 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 Prince Rupert’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Prince Rupert
Is Prince Rupert at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Prince Rupert since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How is Prince Rupert’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Prince Rupert B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Prince Rupert flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Prince Rupert, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Prince Rupert?
The area’s survey found 5.2% of 211 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Prince Rupert.
How big is the earthquake risk in Prince Rupert?
Expected earthquake damage in Prince Rupert comes to $0.096 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).