Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainShaking costs buildings in Sunrise Estates $0.47 a year per $1,000 of value, 16 times the typical town’s
Little of the land around Sunrise Estates has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% 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 Sunrise Estates a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Sunrise Estates’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sunrise Estates: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sunrise Estates faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sunrise Estates grades B for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Sunrise Estates’ 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. 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 Sunrise Estates: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Sunrise Estates’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.002% a year keeps Sunrise Estates in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Nothing inside 5 km of Sunrise Estates’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 21 km off.
Close to Sunrise Estates there is little to burn (2.3% forest fuel within 5 km), but 16% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
Some fire is mapped around Sunrise Estates (0.002% a year), but it ranks only 230th of 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver has 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, Sunrise Estates 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.
2 flood studies cover Sunrise Estates, the newest from City of Langley
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sunrise Estates: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Sunrise Estates the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently City of Langley’s in 2022.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicomekl River Floodplain Mapping | City of Langley | 2022 | final |
| 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, Sunrise Estates 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.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Sunrise Estates between the 2010s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Sunrise Estates.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Sunrise Estates.
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 Sunrise Estates’ costliest hazard: $0.47 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Sunrise Estates’ $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
Sunrise Estates’ $0.47 tops the median in British Columbia, $0.36, though Duncan reaches $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 Sunrise Estates: 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 Sunrise Estates’ 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 published for the city of Surrey, not by town
Radon runs low around Sunrise Estates: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Sunrise Estates’ area has fewer, 0%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Fraser South health region as a whole, not for Sunrise Estates alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Sunrise Estates it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Sunrise Estates 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 Sunrise Estates 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 Sunrise Estates
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sunrise Estates; 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 Sunrise Estates, 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)
How Sunrise Estates’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunrise Estates | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Rosewood Park 9,004 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Cloverdale 13,615 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Aloha Estates 13,194 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| Langley 35,444 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.54 | 0% | Yes |
| Clayton Heights 8,961 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Provinceton 11,625 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
Cloverdale burns a little more than Sunrise Estates, 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 Sunrise Estates faces
Practical steps for Sunrise Estates’ 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 Sunrise Estates’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Sunrise Estates takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Sunrise Estates’.
- 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 Sunrise Estates.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sunrise Estates
Is Sunrise Estates at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Sunrise Estates’ 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 Sunrise Estates’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sunrise Estates’ Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Sunrise Estates?
0% of the 70 homes Health Canada tested around Sunrise Estates topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Sunrise Estates flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Sunrise Estates; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sunrise Estates?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sunrise Estates $0.47 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).