Photo: Larry LaRose · CC BY-SA 3.0Earthquake risk in Colebrook runs 16 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.47 per $1,000 a year
Fire seldom reaches Colebrook: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.003% a year). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Colebrook grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Colebrook’s hazards
For Colebrook, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Colebrook faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Colebrook grades B for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Colebrook’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #59 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,520 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 70 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Colebrook: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Colebrook’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.003% burned a year, Colebrook is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Colebrook’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 8.6 km away.
About as much forest grows next to Colebrook’s homes (8.2% within 5 km) as across 25 km (8.1%).
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
Colebrook ranks 191st of the 255 towns in British Columbia for burn rate (0.003% a year), in the lower half; 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.
Some fire is mapped around Colebrook, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 7.5% rank higher.
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.
City of Surrey has mapped flooding for Colebrook (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Colebrook, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Colebrook the inventory points to City of Surrey’s 2015 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Colebrook is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Colebrook.
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 Colebrook $0.47 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.
Colebrook’s $0.47 is about 15.7 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Figures for earthquake risk are published for the city of Surrey as a whole, not for Colebrook alone.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Colebrook, at $0.47, sits above the median of $0.36.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Colebrook is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 1.6% rank higher.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Colebrook.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Colebrook: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Fraser South health region
Fewer homes than usual test high around Colebrook: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Colebrook’s area, at 0%, is below the median in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Colebrook with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Colebrook, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Colebrook
Alerts for Colebrook 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 Colebrook to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Colebrook’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colebrook | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Panorama Ridge 36,473 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Strawberry Hill 37,037 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| Sullivan 42,135 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Newton 51,222 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Crescent Heights 9,033 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Anderson Walk 4,210 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
Sullivan burns a little more than Colebrook, 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 Colebrook faces
Practical steps for Colebrook’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Colebrook’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Colebrook.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Colebrook, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Colebrook takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Colebrook
Is Colebrook at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Colebrook’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2018), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Colebrook’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Colebrook B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Colebrook?
About $0.47 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Colebrook.
Is radon a problem in Colebrook?
0% of the 70 homes Health Canada tested around Colebrook topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Colebrook flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Colebrook; 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).