Photo: Bell and Jeff from Wellington, New Zealand · CC BY 2.0Vanderhoof is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Burn scars are few around Vanderhoof, with 1.5% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.04% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.015 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 12% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Vanderhoof a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Vanderhoof’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Vanderhoof: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Vanderhoof faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Vanderhoof: B
Two inputs always count for Vanderhoof, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #54 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,507 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.
Wildfire is rare near Vanderhoof: 1.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Vanderhoof’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.04% burned a year, Vanderhoof is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Within 5 km of Vanderhoof, 13% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 54%.
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
Vanderhoof sits mid-table in British Columbia: 77th of 255 towns, at 0.04% a year, well behind Oliver (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.
Some fire is mapped around Vanderhoof, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
Flooding around Vanderhoof is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Flood studies whose area touches Vanderhoof, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Vanderhoof the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship’s in 2025.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fraser, Nechako, Salmon, and Chilako Rivers Flood Mapping Study | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2025 | final |
| Nechako River at Vanderhoof Floodplain Mapping (including Stony Creek) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1984 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Vanderhoof is one of the 76% of towns in British Columbia with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Vanderhoof between the 1980s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Vanderhoof.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Vanderhoof.
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.
Little shaking expected in Vanderhoof: $0.015 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
0.5 times the typical $0.030: Vanderhoof’s $0.015 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Vanderhoof’s $0.015 against a median of $0.36; 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Vanderhoof than in 72% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Vanderhoof’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).
Radon runs high around Vanderhoof: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Northern Interior health region
Vanderhoof’s survey area reads 12% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Vanderhoof’s area, at 12%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%), and 1.9% 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Vanderhoof, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
One home in Vanderhoof 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 Vanderhoof
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Vanderhoof; 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 Vanderhoof 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 Vanderhoof
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanderhoof | Low | $0.015 | 12% | Yes |
| Electoral Area F, Bulkley-Nechako 3,643 · 10 km | Moderate | $0.013 | 12% | Yes |
The heaviest fire record nearby is Electoral Area F, Bulkley-Nechako’s, moderate to Vanderhoof’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Vanderhoof faces
What to do about the hazards Vanderhoof 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Vanderhoof’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Vanderhoof’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Vanderhoof without grading them.
- 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 Vanderhoof until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Vanderhoof
Is Vanderhoof at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 1.5% of the land around Vanderhoof since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Vanderhoof flood?
A flood study covers Vanderhoof on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Vanderhoof’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Vanderhoof B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Vanderhoof?
Expected earthquake damage in Vanderhoof comes to $0.015 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Vanderhoof?
Around Vanderhoof, 208 survey homes were tested and 12% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).