Photo: Duckdave · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in Barrie is lower than in 98% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Barrie’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.015 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 0.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Barrie a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Barrie’s hazards
For Barrie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Barrie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Barrie grades A+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Barrie’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #6 of 866 in Ontario and #216 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.
Little of the land around Barrie has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Barrie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Barrie burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Barrie’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 18 km off.
8% of the land within 5 km of Barrie is forest fuel, close to the 13% 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
At 0.001% a year, Barrie is near the top in Ontario: 83rd of 871, behind Sioux Lookout (0.16%).
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.
Barrie 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.
Barrie is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Barrie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2024 study by Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority covers Barrie, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Barrie - Barrie Creeks | Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Barrie with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share 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 Barrie’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.
Low seismic risk in Barrie: $0.015 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.015 per $1,000, Barrie carries 0.5 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Barrie’s $0.015 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 72% of its 2,611 towns sit above Barrie.
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 Barrie 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).
0.9% of homes tested around Barrie are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Barrie’s area has fewer, 0.9%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Barrie than in most towns in Ontario: 0.9% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Barrie with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Whatever Barrie’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Barrie
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Barrie; 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 Barrie 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 Barrie
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrie | Low | $0.015 | 0.9% | Yes |
| Innisfil 50,686 · 12 km | Low | $0.019 | 0.9% | None listed |
| Angus 26,036 · 15 km | Low | $0.018 | 0.9% | None listed |
| Springwater 24,144 · 15 km | Low | $0.017 | 0.9% | Yes |
Nowhere around Barrie burns more: Innisfil, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Barrie faces
Practical steps for Barrie’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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Barrie, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Barrie.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Barrie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Barrie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Barrie
How big is the earthquake risk in Barrie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Barrie $0.015 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Barrie?
0.9% of the 109 homes Health Canada tested around Barrie topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Barrie flood?
There is flood mapping for Barrie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Barrie at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Barrie’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2006), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Barrie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Barrie grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the 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).