Photo: Clee7903 · CC BY-SA 4.0Shaking costs buildings in Johnston Heights $0.47 a year per $1,000 of value, 16 times the typical town’s
Burn scars are few around Johnston Heights, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (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. Johnston Heights grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Johnston Heights’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Johnston Heights: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Johnston Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Johnston Heights grades B for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Johnston Heights with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Johnston Heights: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Johnston Heights’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Johnston Heights burns at 0.003% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Johnston Heights’ homes came within 12 km, never inside 5 km.
The forest starts beyond town: 2.6% of the land within 5 km of Johnston Heights’ homes is forest fuel, against 25% 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
Oliver tops the 255 towns in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; Johnston Heights, at 0.003%, comes 191st.
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 Johnston Heights 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.
Johnston Heights is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by City of Surrey
Flood studies whose area touches Johnston Heights, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2015 study by City of Surrey covers Johnston Heights, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| 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, Johnston 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Johnston Heights.
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 Johnston Heights’ 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.
At $0.47 per $1,000, Johnston Heights carries roughly 15.7 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Johnston Heights, 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Johnston 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 Johnston 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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Surrey
Radon runs low around Johnston Heights: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Johnston Heights’ area, at 0%. Johnston Heights doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Fraser South health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Johnston Heights’ 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.
Johnston Heights is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
One home in Johnston Heights can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Johnston Heights
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Johnston Heights; 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 Johnston Heights 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 Johnston Heights’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnston Heights | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Guildford 14,663 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| Birdland 10,745 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Fleetwood 63,957 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Port Mann 5,988 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Fraser Heights 17,688 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Whalley 52,642 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Johnston Heights has the most fire on record (low); Guildford follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Johnston Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Johnston 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
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Johnston Heights’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Johnston Heights floods.
- 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 Johnston Heights’.
- 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 Johnston Heights sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Johnston Heights
How big is the earthquake risk in Johnston Heights?
Expected earthquake damage in Johnston Heights comes to $0.47 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Johnston Heights at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Johnston Heights has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Johnston Heights flood?
Johnston 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 Johnston Heights?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 70 homes tested in Johnston Heights’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Johnston Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Johnston Heights B, 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).