Photo: Tango7174 · CC BY-SA 4.0Paradise faces fewer hazards than 88% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is rare near Paradise: 0.7% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.02% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.015 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, just 4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Paradise grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Paradise’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Paradise: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Paradise faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Paradise grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Paradise’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #23 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #481 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.
Wildfire is rare near Paradise: 0.7% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 1.8% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Paradise’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Paradise is 0.02%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest thickens with distance from Paradise: 54% of the land within 5 km, 66% 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 32
In the lower half in Newfoundland and Labrador: Paradise at 0.02% a year, 17th of 32, far from Labrador City’s 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.
Paradise is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
Paradise is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Department of Environment and Climate Change
Flood studies whose area touches Paradise, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Paradise, the newest Department of Environment and Climate Change’s from 2018, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waterford River Area | Department of Environment and Climate Change | 2018 | final |
| Portugal Cove - St Philips | Department of Environment and Climate Change | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Newfoundland and Labrador reaches 59% of towns, Paradise included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Paradise 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Little shaking expected in Paradise: $0.015 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 $0.015 per $1,000, Paradise carries 0.5 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Top in Newfoundland and Labrador: Paradise’s $0.015 against a median of $0.011.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
72% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Paradise.
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 Paradise’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).
Radon runs low around Paradise: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Paradise’s survey area reads 4% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority, Paradise included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Paradise’s area, at 4%, is close to the median in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%).
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 Paradise’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 Paradise 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 Paradise
Alerts for Paradise 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 Paradise 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)
Hazards in the places around Paradise
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paradise | Low | $0.015 | 4% | Yes |
| Mount Pearl 24,266 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.011 | 4% | Yes |
| Portugal Cove-St. Philip's 9,167 · 7.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 4% | Yes |
| Conception Bay South 29,725 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 4% | None listed |
| St. John's 128,693 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.011 | 4% | Yes |
| Wabana 2,008 · 13 km | Low | $0.011 | 4% | None listed |
| Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove 1,005 · 14 km | Low | $0.012 | 4% | Yes |
The fire record around Wabana is a touch heavier than Paradise’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Paradise faces
Practical steps for Paradise’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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, Paradise takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Paradise’s.
- 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 Paradise.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Paradise’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 Paradise
Is Paradise at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Paradise’s band is low, with 0.7% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Paradise?
About $0.015 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Paradise.
Does Paradise flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Paradise; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Paradise’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Paradise’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Paradise?
4% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Paradise 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).