Radon is Salmo’s main hazard: 29% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burn rate around Salmo is 0.08% a year (3.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.010 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Salmo grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Salmo’s hazards
For Salmo, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Salmo faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Salmo: C+
The grade weighs Salmo’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Some fire around Salmo: 3.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Salmo’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Salmo is 0.08%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Salmo: 76% within 5 km, 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 256
Oliver burns fastest in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; Salmo, at 0.08%, ranks 57th of 256.
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.
Moderate puts Salmo above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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.
Regional District of Central Kootenay has mapped flooding for Salmo (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Salmo, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Salmo is Regional District of Central Kootenay’s, dated 2020; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| RDCK Floodplain and Steep Creek Study, Salmo River FINAL | Regional District of Central Kootenay | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Salmo is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Salmo’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Salmo just $0.010 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.
0.3 times the typical $0.030: Salmo’s $0.010 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Salmo’s $0.010 sits under the median in British Columbia, $0.36, and well under 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (86%) face more earthquake damage than Salmo.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Salmo is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
29% of homes tested around Salmo are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 29% over the guideline, the area around Salmo beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Salmo alone, so this card uses the figure for the Kootenay/Boundary health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Salmo (29%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%); 7.3% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Salmo; 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are in that band and 1.5% 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.
Whatever Salmo’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Salmo
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Salmo; 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 Salmo, 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 Salmo
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salmo | Moderate | $0.010 | 29% | Yes |
| Electoral Area G, Central Kootenay 1,795 · 8.0 km | Moderate | $0.008 | 29% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Electoral Area G, Central Kootenay (moderate), still no more than Salmo (moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Salmo faces
What to do about the hazards Salmo faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Salmo.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Salmo.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Salmo takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Salmo’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Salmo
How big is the earthquake risk in Salmo?
About $0.010 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Salmo.
Is radon a problem in Salmo?
Around Salmo, 109 survey homes were tested and 29% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Salmo at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 3.3% of the land around Salmo since 1986 (last in 2025); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Salmo’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Salmo’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Salmo flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Salmo; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).