Photo: cate cuerden from Stratford, Canada · CC BY 2.0Hazards in Bayfield: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 11% of tested homes
Little of the land around Bayfield has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.012 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Bayfield a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Bayfield’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Bayfield: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Bayfield faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bayfield grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Bayfield’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #612 of 866 in Ontario and #1,401 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 Bayfield has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bayfield’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Bayfield at 0.002% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Bayfield’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 11 km off.
Little near Bayfield’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 1.1% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.4% 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
The land around Bayfield burns at 0.002% a year, the 54th highest rate of 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops it at 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Bayfield 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Bayfield
Flood studies whose area touches Bayfield, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Bayfield; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Bayfield has no study, where 69% of towns in Ontario have one against 58% nationally.
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 Bayfield 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.”
Little shaking expected in Bayfield: $0.012 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.
0.4 times the typical $0.030: Bayfield’s $0.012 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Bayfield’s $0.012 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.
84% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Bayfield.
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 Bayfield’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).
Radon runs high around Bayfield: 11% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Huron County Health Unit: radon tests
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Bayfield’s area has 11%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Bayfield than in most towns in Ontario: 11% over the guideline (4% is typical), 0.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Bayfield is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Bayfield only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Bayfield
Alerts for Bayfield 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Bayfield are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Bayfield
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayfield | Low | $0.012 | 11% | None listed |
| Exeter 10,781 · 16 km | Low | $0.014 | 11% | None listed |
Bayfield’s low band tops its neighbours; Exeter is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bayfield faces
What to do about the hazards Bayfield 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Bayfield floods.
- 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 Bayfield sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Bayfield’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Bayfield’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bayfield
How big is the earthquake risk in Bayfield?
About $0.012 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Bayfield.
How is Bayfield’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bayfield B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Bayfield flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Bayfield’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Bayfield?
Around Bayfield, 106 survey homes were tested and 11% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Bayfield at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Bayfield since 1986 (last in 2006); at low, it neither helps nor hurts 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).