Photo: Scott Davis · CC BY 2.5High radon around Wakefield: 17% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
For Wakefield, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Wakefield is middling, $0.045 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Wakefield grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Wakefield’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Wakefield: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Wakefield faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Wakefield grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Wakefield’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #37 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,390 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.
Little of the land around Wakefield has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Wakefield’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.000% burned a year, Wakefield is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
The nearer ring around Wakefield is less wooded (41% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (64%).
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Wakefield is zero, as for 15 of the 60 towns in New Brunswick, while Tracadie reaches 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Wakefield is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
No flood study is listed for Wakefield
Flood studies whose area touches Wakefield, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Wakefield on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in New Brunswick reaches 93% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Wakefield.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Wakefield’s homes are at risk.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Wakefield $0.045 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 $0.045 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Wakefield is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in New Brunswick expects $0.036 a year; Wakefield expects $0.045, 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 32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Wakefield.
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 Wakefield’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).
Test for radon in Wakefield: 17% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Wakefield’s area, at 17%. Wakefield doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Region 3 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Wakefield’s area, at 17%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 7.1% 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.
More high tests than most: Wakefield sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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 Wakefield; 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 Wakefield
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Wakefield; 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. |
For fires near Wakefield, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Wakefield
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wakefield | Low | $0.045 | 17% | None listed |
| Hartland 1,025 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.032 | 17% | None listed |
| Wilmot 1,057 · 11 km | Low | $0.062 | 17% | None listed |
| Woodstock 6,260 · 12 km | Low | $0.038 | 17% | None listed |
| Brighton 1,635 · 15 km | Low | $0.043 | 17% | None listed |
| Woodstock 2,371 · 16 km | Low | $0.042 | 17% | None listed |
| Peel 1,176 · 17 km | Low | $0.040 | 17% | None listed |
Wakefield’s low band tops its neighbours; Hartland is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Wakefield faces
Practical steps for Wakefield’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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 Wakefield’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Wakefield takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Wakefield’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Wakefield.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Wakefield
How big is the earthquake risk in Wakefield?
Expected earthquake damage in Wakefield comes to $0.045 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Wakefield?
The area’s survey found 17% of 112 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Wakefield.
How is Wakefield’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Wakefield C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Wakefield at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Wakefield (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Does Wakefield flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Wakefield, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).