Photo: Canmenwalker · CC BY 4.0Earthquakes are Oakridge’s biggest hazard: $0.43 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 14 times the norm
Wildfire is rare near Oakridge: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.004% a year. Radon is lower than usual: 1.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Oakridge a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Oakridge’s hazards
For Oakridge, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Oakridge faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Oakridge grades B− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Oakridge’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #136 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,670 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Oakridge: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Oakridge’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.004% of the land a year around Oakridge, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Oakridge’s homes came within 5.1 km, never inside 5 km.
Close to Oakridge there is little to burn (1.1% forest fuel within 5 km), but 34% 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
In the lower half in British Columbia: Oakridge 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Oakridge among them, though its rate is above zero; 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 Oakridge, from City of Vancouver: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Oakridge, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2014 study by City of Vancouver covers Oakridge, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment | City of Vancouver | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Oakridge 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Oakridge’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.
High seismic risk in Oakridge: $0.43 per $1,000 of buildings 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; Oakridge loses $0.43, 14.4 times as much.
Figures for earthquake risk are published for the city of Vancouver as a whole, not for Oakridge alone.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Oakridge’s $0.43 is close to the median in British Columbia, $0.36; Duncan is 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.
Oakridge is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 3.1% 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Oakridge is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
1.2% of homes tested around Oakridge are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Vancouver health region
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Oakridge’s area has fewer, 1.2%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Oakridge than in most towns in British Columbia: 1.2% against 1.8%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Oakridge, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Oakridge, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Oakridge
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Oakridge; 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 Oakridge, 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)
Hazards in the places around Oakridge
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakridge | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Marpole 28,182 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Shaughnessy 8,034 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Sunset 37,186 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| South Cambie 9,846 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Kerrisdale 14,105 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Riley Park 23,682 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
The fire record around Shaughnessy is a touch heavier than Oakridge’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 Oakridge faces
What to do about the hazards Oakridge 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
- 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 Oakridge sits in.
- 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 Oakridge floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Oakridge, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Oakridge’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Oakridge
Does Oakridge flood?
Oakridge’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How is Oakridge’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Oakridge’s Hazard risk grade is B−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Oakridge?
Around Oakridge, 83 survey homes were tested and 1.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Oakridge?
About $0.43 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Oakridge.
Is Oakridge at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Oakridge since 1986 (last in 2018); at low, it neither helps nor hurts 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).