Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/72874821@N03/ · CC BY 2.0Fogo Island faces fewer hazards than 93% of Canadian towns
For Fogo Island, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.009 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Fogo Island as elsewhere, 5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Fogo Island a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Fogo Island’s hazards
For Fogo Island, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fogo Island faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Fogo Island: A
Seismic risk and radon set Fogo Island’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Fogo Island: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Fogo Island’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Fogo Island’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Fogo Island: 45% of the land within 5 km, 57% within 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 33
Among the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, Labrador City burns fastest (0.43% a year); Fogo Island is with the 8 near zero.
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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Fogo Island is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Fogo Island
Flood studies whose area touches Fogo Island, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Fogo Island; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Newfoundland and Labrador reaches 59% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Fogo Island.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Fogo Island.
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.”
Little shaking expected in Fogo Island: $0.009 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.
At $0.009 per $1,000, Fogo Island carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Fogo Island runs at $0.009 a year, near the $0.011 of the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador; Holyrood has $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.
Earthquakes cost less around Fogo Island than in 86% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Fogo Island.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Fogo Island: 5% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fogo Island’s area, at 5%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Fogo Island, 5% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 2% over 600, against a median of 4% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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 Fogo Island’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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Fogo Island’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Central Regional Integrated Health Authority
Where to get warnings in Fogo Island
Alerts for Fogo Island 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. |
Evacuation orders for Fogo Island come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Fogo Island faces
Practical steps for Fogo Island’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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Fogo Island floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Fogo Island’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Fogo Island, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Fogo Island sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fogo Island
How big is the earthquake risk in Fogo Island?
About $0.009 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Fogo Island.
Is radon a problem in Fogo Island?
5% of the 201 homes Health Canada tested around Fogo Island topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Fogo Island flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Fogo Island (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Fogo Island at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Fogo Island: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
How is Fogo Island’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Fogo Island A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).