Photo: Urban Walnut · Public domainHazard risk in Tumbler Ridge is higher than in 95% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a real hazard for Tumbler Ridge: 10% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.26% a year, in the high band. Seismic risk in Tumbler Ridge sits near the middle: $0.018 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Tumbler Ridge grades D for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Tumbler Ridge’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Tumbler Ridge: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Tumbler Ridge faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Tumbler Ridge: D
Seismic risk and radon set Tumbler Ridge’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #228 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,536 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
0.1% of the land near Tumbler Ridge’s homes has burned since 1986, 10% within 25 km
Past fire around Tumbler Ridge’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.26% of the land a year, Tumbler Ridge’s burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Tumbler Ridge: 87% within 5 km, 86% 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 burns fastest in British Columbia at 0.98% a year; Tumbler Ridge, at 0.26%, ranks 27th of 255.
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.
High is rare: 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Tumbler Ridge among them, with 0.2% higher still.
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.
No flood study is listed for Tumbler Ridge
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Tumbler Ridge: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Tumbler Ridge has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Tumbler Ridge has no study, where 76% of towns in British Columbia have one against 58% nationally.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Tumbler Ridge to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Tumbler Ridge: $0.018 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Tumbler Ridge’s ground: $0.018 against a typical $0.030, 0.6 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Tumbler Ridge’s $0.018 sits under the median in British Columbia, $0.36, and well under Duncan’s $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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (68%) face more earthquake damage than Tumbler Ridge.
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 Tumbler Ridge’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).
Test for radon in Tumbler Ridge: 10% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Northeast health region
At 10% over the guideline, the area around Tumbler Ridge beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Tumbler Ridge’s area, at 10%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%), and 0.5% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Tumbler Ridge is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Tumbler Ridge as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Tumbler Ridge
Alerts for Tumbler Ridge 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Tumbler Ridge are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Tumbler Ridge faces
Practical steps for Tumbler Ridge’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Tumbler Ridge’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Tumbler Ridge’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Tumbler Ridge 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 Tumbler Ridge.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Tumbler Ridge
Does Tumbler Ridge flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Tumbler Ridge (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Tumbler Ridge’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Tumbler Ridge’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Tumbler Ridge?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Tumbler Ridge’s buildings lose $0.018 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Tumbler Ridge?
10% of the 200 homes Health Canada tested around Tumbler Ridge topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Tumbler Ridge at risk of wildfire?
It is: 10% of the land within 25 km of Tumbler Ridge has burned since 1986, the latest in 2025, which puts it in the high band that lowers Risk.
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).