Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Labrador City faces more hazards than 97% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a real hazard for Labrador City: 17% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.43% a year, in the high band. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.004 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Labrador City grades D− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Labrador City’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Labrador City: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Labrador City faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Labrador City: D−
Earthquake risk and radon make Labrador City’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #2,561 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.
2.2% of the land near Labrador City’s homes has burned since 1986, 17% within 25 km
Past fire around Labrador City’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
High: the land around Labrador City burns at 0.43% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Labrador City’s homes (59% within 5 km) as across 25 km (60%).
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
Labrador City has the highest burn rate of the 32 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, 0.43% a year; next is Bishop's Falls 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.
High is rare: 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Labrador City among them, with 0.2% higher still.
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 Labrador City
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Labrador City: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Labrador City; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Newfoundland and Labrador, 59% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Labrador City.
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 Labrador City’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 Labrador City: $0.004 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Labrador City it is only $0.004, 0.1 times as much.
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; Labrador City expects less, $0.004, 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.
Nearly every one of Canada’s 2,611 towns (98%) expects more shaking damage than Labrador City.
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 loss is to Labrador City’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Labrador City: 3% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Labrador-Grenfell Regional Integrated Health Auth health region: radon tests
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Labrador City’s area, at 3%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Labrador City (3%) than in the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%), yet 0.5% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Labrador City’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Labrador City can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Labrador City
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Labrador City; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Labrador City, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Labrador City
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labrador City | High | $0.004 | 3% | None listed |
| Wabush 2,105 · 5.7 km | High | $0.004 | 3% | None listed |
The fire record around Wabush is a touch heavier than Labrador City’s, but the band is the same: high (here high).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Labrador City faces
Practical steps for Labrador City’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 Labrador City.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Labrador City 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 Labrador City’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Labrador City’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Labrador City
Is radon a problem in Labrador City?
The area’s survey found 3% of 201 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Labrador City.
How big is the earthquake risk in Labrador City?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Labrador City’s buildings lose $0.004 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Labrador City at risk of wildfire?
Wildfire is Labrador City’s main hazard, band high: 17% of the land within 25 km burned between 1986 and 2024.
Does Labrador City flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Labrador City, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Labrador City’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Labrador City D−, 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).