Photo: The original uploader was Damieng at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 3.0Earthquake risk in Squamish runs 9 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.28 per $1,000 a year
Wildfire is rare near Squamish: 0.4% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.009% a year. In Health Canada’s survey, just 2.5% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Squamish grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Squamish’s hazards
For Squamish, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Squamish faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Squamish: C+
For Squamish, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #178 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,786 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Few fires near Squamish: 0.4% within 5 km, 0.4% within 25 km
Past fire around Squamish’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Squamish’s 0.009% is in the low band.
Forest fuel is denser close to Squamish (77% within 5 km) than further out (67% 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
In the upper half in British Columbia but far from Oliver (0.98%): Squamish ranks 100th of 255, at 0.009% a year.
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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Squamish burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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 Squamish is mapped in 3 studies, the newest by Squamish Lillooet Regional District
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Squamish: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
3 studies on the inventory touch Squamish, the newest Squamish Lillooet Regional District’s from 2021, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flood Hazard Mapping and Risk Assessment Upper Paradise Valley | Squamish Lillooet Regional District | 2021 | final |
| Squamish Lilloet Regional District Flood Hazard Mapping and Risk Assessment Upper Squamish | Squamish-Lillooet Regional District | 2018 | final · not public |
| District of Squamish Integrated Flood Hazard Management Plan | District of Squamish | 2017 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Squamish included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The busiest decade for flood studies around Squamish was the 2010s (2 of 3); they run from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Squamish.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Squamish 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.
Shaking is Squamish’s costliest hazard: $0.28 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Squamish’s $0.28 is about 9.4 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Squamish’s $0.28 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Squamish: 6.1% 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).
For Squamish the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
2.5% of homes tested around Squamish are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the North Shore/Coast Garibaldi health region: radon tests
Squamish’s survey area reads 2.5% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Squamish (2.5%) 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.
Few tests over the guideline: Squamish shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Squamish’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Squamish
Alerts for Squamish 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Squamish to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Squamish’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squamish | Low | $0.28 | 2.5% | Yes |
| Electoral Area D, Squamish-Lillooet 1,055 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.16 | 2.5% | Yes |
The fire record around Electoral Area D, Squamish-Lillooet is a touch heavier than Squamish’s, 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 Squamish faces
Practical steps for Squamish’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.
- 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
- 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 Squamish.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Squamish 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, Squamish’s included.
- 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 Squamish.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Squamish
Is radon a problem in Squamish?
2.5% of the 81 homes Health Canada tested around Squamish topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Squamish?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Squamish $0.28 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Squamish flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Squamish; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Squamish at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Squamish’s band is low, with 0.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Squamish’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Squamish C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).