Photo: Shawn from Airdrie, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Smithers: it beats 92% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Smithers has burned: 0.2% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.005% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.009 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 5.2% of homes tested in Smithers’ area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Smithers grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Smithers’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Smithers: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Smithers faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Smithers: A
Earthquake risk and radon make Smithers’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #2 of 254 in British Columbia and #291 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 Smithers: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Smithers’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Smithers’ 0.005% is in the low band.
The nearer ring around Smithers is less wooded (38% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (64%).
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
At 0.005% a year, Smithers ranks 121st of the 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver leads 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Smithers 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.
Flooding around Smithers is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Flood studies whose area touches Smithers, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The newest of 2 studies covering Smithers is Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship’s, from 2024; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floodplain Mapping in BC - Bulkley and Skeena River – Summary Report and Lakelse Lake and River – Summary Report | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2024 | final |
| Bulkley and Telkwa Rivers (Smithers to Telkwa) Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1984 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Smithers 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 2 studies touching Smithers are spread over time, from the 1980s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Smithers.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Smithers.
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.
Little shaking expected in Smithers: $0.009 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.009 per $1,000, Smithers carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Smithers’ $0.009 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 86% of its 2,611 towns sit above Smithers.
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 Smithers’ 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 Smithers: 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. · Source area for radon tests: the Northwest health region
5.2% of tested homes around Smithers were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Smithers’ area, at 5.2%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%), and 1.4% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Smithers, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Smithers as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Smithers
Alerts for Smithers 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Smithers are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Smithers’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smithers | Low | $0.009 | 5.2% | Yes |
| Electoral Area A, Bulkley-Nechako 5,829 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.011 | 5.2% | Yes |
| Telkwa 1,544 · 13 km | Low | $0.016 | 5.2% | Yes |
Electoral Area A, Bulkley-Nechako burns a little more than Smithers, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Smithers faces
Practical steps for Smithers’ 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
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Smithers’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Smithers’.
- 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 Smithers.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Smithers is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Smithers
How big is the earthquake risk in Smithers?
Expected earthquake damage in Smithers comes to $0.009 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Smithers?
5.2% of the 211 homes Health Canada tested around Smithers topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Smithers’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Smithers grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Smithers flood?
There is flood mapping for Smithers on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Smithers at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Smithers’ band is low, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), 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).