Photo: Rod Lafond · CC BY 3.019% of homes tested in Sparwood’s area are above the radon guideline
The burn rate around Sparwood is 0.05% a year (2% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Seismic risk in Sparwood sits near the middle: $0.025 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Sparwood a grade of C; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Sparwood’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sparwood: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sparwood faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Sparwood: C
For Sparwood, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #219 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,194 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.
Some fire around Sparwood: 2% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 8.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sparwood’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Sparwood is 0.05%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Sparwood: 54% within 5 km, 50% 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
At 0.05% a year, Sparwood ranks 69th 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.
Moderate puts Sparwood 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.
2 flood studies cover Sparwood, the newest from Regional District of East Kootenay
Flood studies whose area touches Sparwood, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Sparwood, the newest Regional District of East Kootenay’s from 2019, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elk River Floodplain Mapping | Regional District of East Kootenay | 2019 | final |
| Elk River and Michel Creek at Sparwood Floodplain Mapping (including Cummings Creek) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Sparwood is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Sparwood has come in steps: 2 studies from the 1990s to the 2010s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Sparwood.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Sparwood.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Sparwood: $0.025 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.
Earthquake losses in Sparwood, $0.025 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.025, Sparwood is below the typical town in British Columbia ($0.36); Duncan is highest at $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Sparwood (53%).
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 Sparwood’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).
Test for radon in Sparwood: 19% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the East Kootenay health region: radon tests
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Sparwood’s area, at 19%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Sparwood, 19% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 2.9% over 600, against a median of 1.8% in British Columbia.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Sparwood is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% 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.
The survey sampled homes around Sparwood; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Sparwood
Alerts for Sparwood 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 Sparwood 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 Sparwood’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparwood | Moderate | $0.025 | 19% | Yes |
| Electoral Area A, East Kootenay 2,092 · 18 km | Moderate | $0.029 | 19% | Yes |
Electoral Area A, East Kootenay burns a little more than Sparwood, in the same moderate band (moderate here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sparwood faces
Practical steps for Sparwood’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- 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 Sparwood until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Sparwood without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sparwood’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Sparwood’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sparwood
Is Sparwood at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Sparwood’s band is moderate, with 2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sparwood?
Expected earthquake damage in Sparwood comes to $0.025 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Sparwood?
19% of the 105 homes Health Canada tested around Sparwood topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Sparwood’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sparwood’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Sparwood flood?
A flood study covers Sparwood on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).