Photo: Canmenwalker · CC BY 4.0Earthquakes are Riley Park’s biggest hazard: $0.43 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 14 times the norm
Little of the land around Riley Park has burned: 0.2% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.004% a year. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.2% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Riley Park grades B− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Riley Park’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Riley Park: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Riley Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Riley Park: B−
The grade weighs Riley Park’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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Riley Park has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Riley Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.004% of the land near Riley Park burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
The 5 km ring around Riley Park’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 6.6 km out.
Close to Riley Park there is little to burn (0.2% forest fuel within 5 km), but 38% 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 Riley Park (0.004% a year), but it ranks only 144th 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, Riley Park 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Riley Park
Flood studies whose area touches Riley Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Riley Park; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Riley Park has no flood study on file, though 76% of towns in British Columbia do (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Riley Park’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
High seismic risk in Riley Park: $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.
At $0.43 per $1,000, Riley Park carries roughly 14.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Riley Park shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Vancouver.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in British Columbia: Riley Park’s $0.43 sits by the median of $0.36, while 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 Riley Park: 3.1% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Riley Park’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Riley Park: 1.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Riley Park’s area, at 1.2%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Vancouver health region, with Riley Park one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Riley Park 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 Riley Park, 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Riley Park as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Riley Park
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Riley Park; 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 Riley Park come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Riley Park
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riley Park | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| South Cambie 9,846 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Little Saigon 11,086 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Mount Pleasant 37,091 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Shaughnessy 8,034 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Kensington-Cedar Cottage 39,668 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Oakridge 14,071 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
South Cambie burns a little more than Riley Park, 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 Riley Park faces
What to do about the hazards Riley Park 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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 Riley Park’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 Riley Park’s.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Riley Park until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Riley Park without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Riley Park
How is Riley Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Riley Park B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Riley Park flood?
Nothing is listed for Riley Park on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Riley Park at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.2% of the land within 25 km of Riley Park has burned since 1986, the last in 2018, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Riley Park?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.2% of 83 homes tested in Riley Park’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Riley Park?
Expected earthquake damage in Riley Park comes to $0.43 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).