Photo: formulanone from Huntsville, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Earthquakes are Yaletown’s biggest hazard: $0.43 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 14 times the norm
Burn scars are few around Yaletown, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.004% a year). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.2% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Yaletown a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Yaletown’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Yaletown: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Yaletown faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Yaletown grades B− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Yaletown’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: 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.
Wildfire is rare near Yaletown: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Yaletown’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Yaletown burns at 0.004% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Yaletown’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 11 km off.
44% of the land within 25 km of Yaletown is forest fuel, yet only 3.2% within 5 km of its homes.
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; Yaletown, 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.
Yaletown is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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 Yaletown, from City of Vancouver: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Yaletown, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2014 study by City of Vancouver covers Yaletown, 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
Its flood study puts Yaletown with 76% of towns in British Columbia; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Yaletown.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Yaletown $0.43 per $1,000 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, Yaletown carries roughly 14.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Yaletown runs at $0.43 a year, near the $0.36 of the typical town in British Columbia; Duncan has $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 Yaletown: 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).
The model counts damage to Yaletown’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
Little radon around Yaletown: 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. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Vancouver health region
Yaletown’s survey area reads 1.2% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Yaletown it is 1.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Yaletown is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have 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.
One home in Yaletown can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Yaletown
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Yaletown; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Yaletown, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Yaletown
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yaletown | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Granville Entertainment District 19,125 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Davie Village 16,833 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Coal Harbour 10,407 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Strathcona 13,783 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| West End 30,785 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Fairview 33,969 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
The fire record around Davie Village is a touch heavier than Yaletown’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 Yaletown faces
What to do about the hazards Yaletown 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Yaletown’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Yaletown’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Yaletown 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 Yaletown.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Yaletown
How is Yaletown’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Yaletown B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Yaletown?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.2% of 83 homes tested in Yaletown’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Yaletown flood?
There is flood mapping for Yaletown on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Yaletown at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.2% of the land within 25 km of Yaletown has burned since 1986, the last in 2018, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Yaletown?
Expected earthquake damage in Yaletown 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).