Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Belleville: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 12% of tested homes
Around Belleville, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Belleville is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.045 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Belleville a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Belleville’s hazards
For Belleville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Belleville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Belleville grades C for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Belleville with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #845 of 866 in Ontario and #2,194 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Belleville: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Belleville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Belleville each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
12% of the land within 5 km of Belleville is forest fuel, close to the 15% 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
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Belleville, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Belleville, 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Belleville
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Belleville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Belleville, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Belleville 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Belleville’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.”
Expected shaking damage in Belleville: $0.045 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Belleville’s ground: $0.045 against a typical $0.030, 1.5 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Ontario is $0.043; Belleville, at $0.045, is right beside it, and Alexandria tops the list at $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Belleville.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Belleville is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Belleville: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Belleville’s area has 12%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Belleville, 12% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 2% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Belleville among them; 4.6% rank 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Belleville’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Belleville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Belleville; 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 Belleville, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Belleville
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belleville | Low | $0.045 | 12% | None listed |
| Quinte West 50,385 · 16 km | Low | $0.034 | 12% | Yes |
| Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory 3,028 · 18 km | Low | $0.043 | 12% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Belleville has the most fire on record (low); Quinte West follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Belleville faces
What to do about the hazards Belleville 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Belleville, 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. 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 Belleville floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Belleville’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Belleville sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Belleville
Does Belleville flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Belleville’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Belleville at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Belleville (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Belleville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Belleville grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Belleville?
Around Belleville, 99 survey homes were tested and 12% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Belleville?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Belleville’s buildings lose $0.045 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).