Photo: Ann Baekken · CC BY 2.0A flood study covers Millbrook 27: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Province of Nova Scotia
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Millbrook 27’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% a year). Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.013 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Millbrook 27 grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Millbrook 27’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Millbrook 27: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Millbrook 27 faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Millbrook 27: B
For Millbrook 27, 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.
Little of the land around Millbrook 27 has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Millbrook 27’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Millbrook 27 burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Millbrook 27’s homes came within 9.3 km, never inside 5 km.
Within 5 km of Millbrook 27, 54% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 75%.
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 Nova Scotia · highest of 91
Millbrook 27 ranks 69th of the 91 towns in Nova Scotia for burn rate (0.001% a year), in the lower half; Barrington leads at 0.46%.
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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Millbrook 27 burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
A flood study covers Millbrook 27, from Province of Nova Scotia: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Millbrook 27: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Millbrook 27, Province of Nova Scotia’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Scotia Flood Mapping Minas Basin Area | Province of Nova Scotia | 2024 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Millbrook 27 is one of the 88% of towns in Nova Scotia with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 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 Millbrook 27’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Millbrook 27 just $0.013 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.013 per $1,000, Millbrook 27 carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Millbrook 27’s $0.013 sits under the median in Nova Scotia, $0.018, and well under Clare’s $0.034.
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 Millbrook 27.
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 Millbrook 27’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).
Test for radon in Millbrook 27: 13% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Zone 3 health region: radon tests
Millbrook 27’s survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Nova Scotia at 13% over 200 Bq/m³ (13% is the median), the area around Millbrook 27 had 3.1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Millbrook 27 sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Millbrook 27 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 Millbrook 27
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Millbrook 27; 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 Millbrook 27, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Millbrook 27’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millbrook 27 | Low | $0.013 | 13% | Yes |
| Truro 14,652 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.014 | 13% | Yes |
| Colchester County, Subdivision C 14,211 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Colchester County, Subdivision B 21,578 · 13 km | Low | $0.017 | 13% | Yes |
Colchester County, Subdivision C burns a little more than Millbrook 27, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Millbrook 27 faces
Practical steps for Millbrook 27’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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Millbrook 27 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 Millbrook 27 floods.
- 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 Millbrook 27’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Millbrook 27’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 Millbrook 27
Is radon a problem in Millbrook 27?
13% of the 96 homes Health Canada tested around Millbrook 27 topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Millbrook 27?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Millbrook 27 $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Millbrook 27 at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Millbrook 27’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Millbrook 27’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Millbrook 27’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Millbrook 27 flood?
Millbrook 27’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).