Photo: Gerry Thomasen from Nanaimo, Canada · CC BY 2.0Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 0.9% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire isn’t Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.001% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Electoral Area B, Strathcona grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Electoral Area B, Strathcona: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Electoral Area B, Strathcona faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Electoral Area B, Strathcona: B+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Electoral Area B, Strathcona with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Few fires near Electoral Area B, Strathcona: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Electoral Area B, Strathcona at 0.001% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s homes came within 11 km, never inside 5 km.
More forest grows near Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s homes (94% within 5 km) than across 25 km (87%).
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 tops the 256 towns in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; Electoral Area B, Strathcona, at 0.001%, comes 239th.
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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Electoral Area B, Strathcona
Flood studies whose area touches Electoral Area B, Strathcona, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Electoral Area B, Strathcona has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia, 76% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Electoral Area B, Strathcona.
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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona.
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.”
Shaking is Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s costliest hazard: $0.10 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Electoral Area B, Strathcona loses $0.10, 3.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year in shaking damage; Electoral Area B, Strathcona expects less, $0.10, and Duncan the most, $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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Electoral Area B, Strathcona, which places it in the upper third.
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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona’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).
Radon runs low around Electoral Area B, Strathcona: 0.9% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Electoral Area B, Strathcona: 0.9% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Figures for radon tests are published for the North Vancouver Island health region as a whole, not for Electoral Area B, Strathcona alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Electoral Area B, Strathcona it is 0.9%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Electoral Area B, Strathcona; 63% sit 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Electoral Area B, Strathcona only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Electoral Area B, Strathcona
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Electoral Area B, Strathcona; 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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona, 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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electoral Area B, Strathcona | Low | $0.10 | 0.9% | None listed |
| Electoral Area C, Strathcona 2,981 · 17 km | Low | $0.16 | 0.9% | None listed |
The fire record around Electoral Area C, Strathcona is a touch heavier than Electoral Area B, Strathcona’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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona faces
What to do about the hazards Electoral Area B, Strathcona faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Electoral Area B, Strathcona sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Electoral Area B, Strathcona floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Electoral Area B, Strathcona
Does Electoral Area B, Strathcona flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Electoral Area B, Strathcona?
Around Electoral Area B, Strathcona, 106 survey homes were tested and 0.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Electoral Area B, Strathcona at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Electoral Area B, Strathcona since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Electoral Area B, Strathcona?
Expected earthquake damage in Electoral Area B, Strathcona comes to $0.10 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).