Photo: Kyla Curtis · Public domainFew places are as safe from hazards as Botwood: it beats 93% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around Botwood is 0.13% a year (5% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.009 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is about average around Botwood: 5% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Botwood grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Botwood’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Botwood: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Botwood faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Botwood grades A for hazard risk
For Botwood, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #8 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #272 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.
Fire reaches the land around Botwood: 5.9% within 5 km, 5% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Botwood’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Botwood burns at 0.13% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest fuel covers 76% of the land close to Botwood and 86% across 25 km.
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 Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 32
At 0.13% a year, Botwood is near the top in Newfoundland and Labrador: 6th of 32, behind Labrador City (0.43%).
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.
Botwood is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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 Botwood
Flood studies whose area touches Botwood, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Botwood, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Newfoundland and Labrador reaches 59% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Botwood.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Botwood to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Low seismic risk in Botwood: $0.009 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Botwood it is only $0.009, 0.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Botwood’s $0.009 is close to the median in Newfoundland and Labrador, $0.011; Holyrood is highest at $0.015.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 86% of its 2,611 towns sit above Botwood.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Botwood’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Botwood: 5% 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 Central Regional Integrated Health Authority
Botwood’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 5% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Botwood than in most towns in Newfoundland and Labrador: 5% over the guideline (4% is typical), 2% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Botwood’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Botwood as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Botwood
Alerts for Botwood come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Botwood to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Botwood’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botwood | Moderate | $0.009 | 5% | None listed |
| Bishop's Falls 3,162 · 17 km | High | $0.010 | 5% | Yes |
The heaviest fire record nearby is Bishop's Falls’s, high to Botwood’s moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Botwood faces
Practical steps for Botwood’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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 Botwood.
- 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 Botwood’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Botwood is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Botwood’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Botwood
How big is the earthquake risk in Botwood?
About $0.009 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Botwood.
Is Botwood at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Botwood’s moderate band (5% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1999) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Botwood?
The area’s survey found 5% of 201 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Botwood.
How is Botwood’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Botwood’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Botwood flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Botwood, 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).