Photo: SimonP at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Wildfire low, radon 8%: how Arnprior stands on hazards
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Arnprior, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Arnprior grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Arnprior’s hazards
For Arnprior, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Arnprior faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Arnprior grades C+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Arnprior’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #816 of 866 in Ontario and #2,038 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Arnprior: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Arnprior’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Arnprior’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Nothing inside 5 km of Arnprior’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 6.7 km off.
Forest thickens with distance from Arnprior: 10% of the land within 5 km, 25% 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 Ontario · highest of 871
Among the 871 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Arnprior is with the 638 near zero.
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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Arnprior is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 7.5% rank 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.
No flood study is listed for Arnprior
Flood studies whose area touches Arnprior, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Arnprior, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario, 69% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Arnprior.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Arnprior.
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.”
High seismic risk in Arnprior: $0.11 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Arnprior’s $0.11 is about 3.7 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year; Arnprior expects $0.11, and Alexandria $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 24% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Arnprior.
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).
For Arnprior the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Arnprior: 8% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Renfrew County and District Health Unit
The survey area of Arnprior reads 8%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Arnprior than in most towns in Ontario: 8% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Arnprior, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Arnprior, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Arnprior
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Arnprior; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Arnprior come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Arnprior
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arnprior | Low | $0.11 | 8% | None listed |
| McNab/Braeside 8,340 · 7.5 km | Low | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| Bristol 1,151 · 10 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | Yes |
| Kinburn 2,639 · 14 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Fitzroy 6,400 · 18 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Horton 3,550 · 19 km | Low | $0.098 | 8% | Yes |
The fire record around Kinburn is a touch heavier than Arnprior’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 Arnprior faces
Practical steps for Arnprior’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Arnprior.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Arnprior is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Arnprior’s included.
- 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 Arnprior.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Arnprior
Is radon a problem in Arnprior?
8% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Arnprior topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Arnprior at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Arnprior’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2020), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Arnprior’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Arnprior C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Arnprior?
About $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Arnprior.
Does Arnprior flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Arnprior (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).