Photo: United Kingdom Hydrographic Office · Public domainFew places are as safe from hazards as Placentia: it beats 90% of Canadian towns
Wildfire barely registers for Placentia, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.013 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Placentia a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Placentia’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Placentia: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Placentia faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Placentia grades A for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Placentia with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #16 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #378 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 Placentia: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Placentia’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Placentia, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest crowds in on Placentia: 81% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 55% 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
Near-zero burning puts Placentia with 7 of the 32 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, far below Labrador City 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Placentia, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Placentia is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Department of Environment and Climate Change
Flood studies whose area touches Placentia, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Placentia is Department of Environment and Climate Change’s, dated 2022; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climate Change Flood Risk Study for Placentia, Carbonear, Victoria, and Salmon Cove | Department of Environment and Climate Change | 2022 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Placentia has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Placentia’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Placentia just $0.013 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Placentia’s $0.013 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Newfoundland and Labrador is $0.011; Placentia, at $0.013, is right beside it, and Holyrood tops the list at $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.
75% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Placentia.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Placentia’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Placentia: 4% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Placentia’s area, at 4%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador has 4% over 200 Bq/m³; Placentia’s area has 4%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Placentia, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
One home in Placentia can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Placentia
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Placentia; 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 Placentia, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Placentia faces
What to do about the hazards Placentia faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Placentia is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Placentia.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Placentia’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 Placentia’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Placentia
Does Placentia flood?
There is flood mapping for Placentia on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Placentia?
In Health Canada’s survey, 4% of 100 homes tested in Placentia’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Placentia?
Expected earthquake damage in Placentia comes to $0.013 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Placentia’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Placentia grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Placentia at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Placentia’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).