Photo: waferboard · CC BY 2.0Earthquake risk in Crescent Heights runs 16 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.47 per $1,000 a year
Wildfire is rare near Crescent Heights: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.004% a year. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Crescent Heights grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Crescent Heights’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Crescent Heights: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Crescent Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Crescent Heights grades B for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Crescent Heights, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #59 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,520 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 70 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Crescent Heights: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Crescent Heights’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.004% a year keeps Crescent Heights in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Crescent Heights’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 12 km out.
About as much forest grows next to Crescent Heights’ homes (9.2% within 5 km) as across 25 km (5.5%).
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 lower half in British Columbia: Crescent Heights at 0.004% a year, 144th of 255, far from Oliver’s 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Crescent Heights reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
A flood study covers Crescent Heights, from City of Surrey: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Crescent Heights, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
City of Surrey studied flooding in an area that includes Crescent Heights (2015); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| 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
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Crescent Heights 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Crescent Heights 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Crescent Heights $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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Crescent Heights loses $0.47, 15.7 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in British Columbia: Crescent Heights’ $0.47 against a median of $0.36, with Duncan 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Crescent Heights: 1.6% 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).
The loss is to Crescent Heights’ 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). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Surrey
0% of homes tested around Crescent Heights are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Fraser South health region: radon tests
Crescent Heights’ survey area reads 0% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%), the area around Crescent Heights has fewer high tests: 0%.
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 Crescent Heights; 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Crescent Heights can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Crescent Heights
Alerts for Crescent Heights 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 Crescent Heights to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Crescent Heights’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crescent Heights | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Ocean Park 10,845 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| South Surrey 6,431 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Anderson Walk 4,210 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Semiahmoo Town Centre 13,381 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| White Rock 25,057 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.60 | 0% | Yes |
| Sunnyside 16,784 · 5.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Ocean Park (low), still no more than Crescent Heights (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Crescent Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Crescent Heights 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?
- 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
- 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 Crescent Heights floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Crescent Heights’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Crescent Heights sits in.
- 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 Crescent Heights’.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Crescent Heights
Does Crescent Heights flood?
Crescent Heights’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Crescent Heights?
Around Crescent Heights, 70 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Crescent Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Crescent Heights B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Crescent Heights at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Crescent Heights since 1986 (last in 2018); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Crescent Heights?
About $0.47 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Crescent Heights.
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).