Photo: formulanone from Huntsville, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Earthquakes are Strathcona’s biggest hazard: $0.43 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 14 times the norm
Burn scars are few around Strathcona, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (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 Strathcona a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Strathcona’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Strathcona: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Strathcona faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Strathcona grades B− for hazard risk
For Strathcona, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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 Strathcona has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Strathcona’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Strathcona is 0.004%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Strathcona’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 10 km away.
Homes in Strathcona sit on open or built-up ground (3% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 44%.
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; Strathcona, at 0.004%, comes 144th.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Strathcona stays low, with 92%.
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.
Strathcona is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by City of Vancouver
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Strathcona: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Strathcona, City of Vancouver’s from 2014, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment | City of Vancouver | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Strathcona is among them.
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 Strathcona’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Strathcona: $0.43 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Strathcona’s $0.43 is about 14.4 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
About level with the typical town in British Columbia: Strathcona’s $0.43 against $0.36; 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.
Only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Strathcona.
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 Strathcona’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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Vancouver
1.2% of homes tested around Strathcona are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Strathcona’s area, at 1.2%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Strathcona alone, so this card uses the figure for the Vancouver health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Strathcona’s area, at 1.2%, 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.
Few tests over the guideline: Strathcona shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 survey sampled homes around Strathcona; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Strathcona
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Strathcona; 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 Strathcona 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 Strathcona
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strathcona | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Yaletown 40,297 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Mount Pleasant 37,091 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Grandview-Woodland 28,119 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Granville Entertainment District 19,125 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Coal Harbour 10,407 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Little Saigon 11,086 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Strathcona (low), with Yaletown next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Strathcona faces
Practical steps for Strathcona’s 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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Strathcona’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Strathcona floods.
- 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 Strathcona sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Strathcona’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Strathcona
Is radon a problem in Strathcona?
1.2% of the 83 homes Health Canada tested around Strathcona topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Strathcona flood?
Strathcona’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 Strathcona’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Strathcona B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Strathcona?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Strathcona’s buildings lose $0.43 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Strathcona at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Strathcona’s band is low, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2018), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).