Photo: Northwest · CC BY-SA 4.0Shaking costs buildings in Grandview $0.47 a year per $1,000 of value, 16 times the typical town’s
Wildfire is rare near Grandview: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 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. Hazard risk gives Grandview a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Grandview’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Grandview: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Grandview faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Grandview: B
Seismic risk and radon set Grandview’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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. The radon share rests on 70 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Grandview: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Grandview’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.003% of the land a year, Grandview’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Grandview’s homes came within 18 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Grandview: 7.3% within 5 km, 7% 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 lower half in British Columbia: Grandview at 0.003% a year, 191st 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Grandview stays low, with 92%.
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 Grandview, from City of Surrey: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Grandview, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Grandview is City of Surrey’s, dated 2015; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| 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 Grandview is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Grandview’s homes are at risk.
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 Grandview’s costliest hazard: $0.47 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.
Grandview’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.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year; Grandview expects $0.47, and Duncan $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.
Grandview 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).
The model counts damage to Grandview’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Surrey
Radon runs low around Grandview: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A lower share than most: 0% of tested homes around Grandview, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Fraser South health region, with Grandview one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Grandview than in most towns in British Columbia: 0% against 1.8%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Grandview 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Grandview 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 Grandview
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Grandview; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Grandview come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Grandview’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grandview | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Sunnyside 16,784 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Semiahmoo Town Centre 13,381 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Morgan Creek 8,084 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| White Rock 25,057 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.60 | 0% | Yes |
| Anderson Walk 4,210 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| South Surrey 6,431 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
The fire record around Sunnyside is a touch heavier than Grandview’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 Grandview faces
Practical steps for Grandview’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. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Grandview’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Grandview’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Grandview is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Grandview.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Grandview
Does Grandview flood?
There is flood mapping for Grandview on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Grandview?
0% of the 70 homes Health Canada tested around Grandview topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Grandview?
About $0.47 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Grandview.
Is Grandview at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Grandview’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Grandview’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Grandview grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).