Massey Drive’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 10% of area homes over the radon guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Massey Drive, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.008 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Massey Drive grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Massey Drive’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Massey Drive: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Massey Drive faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Massey Drive: B+
For Massey Drive, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Massey Drive: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Massey Drive’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.000% burned a year, Massey Drive is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Forest thickens with distance from Massey Drive: 75% of the land within 5 km, 82% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Massey Drive, as for 8 of the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador; Labrador City tops the list 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Massey Drive, burning 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 Massey Drive
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Massey Drive: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Massey Drive, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Massey Drive is not yet one of them.
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 Massey Drive.
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 Massey Drive: $0.008 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.008 per $1,000, Massey Drive carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Massey Drive’s $0.008 sits under the median in Newfoundland and Labrador, $0.011, and well under Holyrood’s $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 Massey Drive than in 87% 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).
The model counts damage to Massey Drive’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).
Radon runs high around Massey Drive: 10% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Western Regional Integrated Health Authority: radon tests
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Massey Drive, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Massey Drive (10%) than in the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%); 1.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Massey Drive among them; 4.6% rank 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Massey Drive only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Massey Drive
Alerts for Massey Drive 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Massey Drive are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Massey Drive’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massey Drive | Low | $0.008 | 10% | None listed |
| Corner Brook 20,549 · 4.5 km | Low | $0.007 | 10% | Yes |
| Irishtown-Summerside 1,296 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.007 | 10% | None listed |
Massey Drive’s low band tops its neighbours; Corner Brook is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Massey Drive faces
Practical steps for Massey Drive’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
- 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 Massey Drive’s.
- 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 Massey Drive sits in.
- 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 Massey Drive floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Massey Drive’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 Massey Drive
Does Massey Drive flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Massey Drive (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Massey Drive’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Massey Drive’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Massey Drive?
10% of the 211 homes Health Canada tested around Massey Drive topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Massey Drive at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Massey Drive (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How big is the earthquake risk in Massey Drive?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Massey Drive’s buildings lose $0.008 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).