Photo: Skaarup.HA · CC BY-SA 3.0Oromocto faces more hazards than 95% of Canadian towns
Fire is a regular visitor: 6.7% of the land within 25 km of Oromocto has burned since 1986 (0.28% a year). For earthquakes Oromocto is middling, $0.051 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 17% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Oromocto a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Oromocto’s hazards
For Oromocto, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Oromocto faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Oromocto: D
The grade weighs Oromocto’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: #2,538 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
0.7% of the land near Oromocto’s homes has burned since 1986, 6.7% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Oromocto’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.28% of the land a year, Oromocto’s burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Oromocto is less wooded (38% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (72%).
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 New Brunswick · highest of 60
In the top quarter in New Brunswick: Oromocto ranks 2nd of 60 at 0.28% a year, with Tracadie first at 0.28%.
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.
Oromocto is one of the few of Canada’s 2,610 towns in the high band (1.9%); 0.2% rank very high.
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.
Oromocto is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Flood studies whose area touches Oromocto, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Oromocto is Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s, dated 2020; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
93% of towns in New Brunswick have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Oromocto has one too.
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 Oromocto’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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Oromocto $0.051 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.
With $0.051 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Oromocto is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in New Brunswick expects $0.036 a year; Oromocto expects $0.051, and St. Stephen $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Oromocto.
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).
For Oromocto the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
17% of homes tested around Oromocto are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Oromocto’s area, at 17%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in New Brunswick at 17% over 200 Bq/m³ (20% is the median), the area around Oromocto had 7.1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Oromocto, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
Whatever Oromocto’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Region 3 health region
Where to get warnings in Oromocto
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Oromocto; 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 Oromocto 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 Oromocto
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oromocto | High | $0.051 | 17% | Yes |
| Burton 5,424 · 7.0 km | High | $0.041 | 17% | Yes |
| Lincoln 8,093 · 8.7 km | Moderate | $0.048 | 17% | Yes |
| Maugerville 1,808 · 9.6 km | Moderate | $0.044 | 17% | Yes |
| New Maryland 4,455 · 16 km | Low | $0.043 | 17% | None listed |
| New Maryland 3,198 · 17 km | Moderate | $0.046 | 17% | None listed |
| Fredericton 74,655 · 18 km | Moderate | $0.039 | 17% | Yes |
Oromocto’s high band tops its neighbours; Burton is next (high).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Oromocto faces
What to do about the hazards Oromocto faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Oromocto.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Oromocto’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Oromocto is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Oromocto, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Oromocto
Does Oromocto flood?
There is flood mapping for Oromocto on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Oromocto?
Expected earthquake damage in Oromocto comes to $0.051 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Oromocto’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Oromocto grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Oromocto?
Around Oromocto, 112 survey homes were tested and 17% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Oromocto at risk of wildfire?
More than most Canadian towns; Oromocto’s high band rests on 6.7% of nearby land burned since 1986 (most recently 2025).
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).