Photo: Ycleymans · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Gambo: it beats 94% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Gambo has burned: 0.9% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.02% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.008 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). About as many homes carry radon around Gambo as elsewhere, 5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Gambo grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Gambo’s hazards
For Gambo, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Gambo faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Gambo: A
Seismic risk and radon set Gambo’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Little of the land around Gambo has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.9% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Gambo’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Gambo fire takes 0.02% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The 5 km ring around Gambo’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 19 km out.
More forest grows near Gambo’s homes (84% within 5 km) than across 25 km (76%).
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
At 0.02% a year, Gambo ranks 14th of the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador; Labrador City leads at 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Gambo among them, though its rate is above zero; 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 Gambo
Flood studies whose area touches Gambo, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Gambo, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Gambo has no flood study on file, though 59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador do (Canada: 58%).
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 Gambo’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.”
Little shaking expected in Gambo: $0.008 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 $0.008 per $1,000, Gambo carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador expects $0.011 a year in shaking damage; Gambo expects less, $0.008, and Holyrood the most, $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.
87% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Gambo.
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 Gambo 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).
Radon about average around Gambo: 5% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Central Regional Integrated Health Authority
The survey area of Gambo reads 5%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Gambo, 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 Gambo’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.
Radon varies from house to house in Gambo, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Gambo
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Gambo; 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 Gambo, 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)
How Gambo’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gambo | Low | $0.008 | 5% | None listed |
| Glovertown 2,014 · 15 km | Low | $0.010 | 5% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Gambo (low); Glovertown comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Gambo faces
Practical steps for Gambo’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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Gambo takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Gambo’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Gambo, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Gambo.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Gambo
How is Gambo’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Gambo grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Gambo?
About $0.008 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Gambo.
Is Gambo at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Gambo’s band is low, with 0.9% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 1998), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Gambo flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Gambo (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Gambo?
5% of the 201 homes Health Canada tested around Gambo topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).