Photo: Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Blind River: it beats 86% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Blind River, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.003% a year). Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Blind River is ordinary for Canada: 8.6% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Blind River grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Blind River’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Blind River: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Blind River faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Blind River grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Blind River’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #193 of 866 in Ontario and #528 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Blind River: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Blind River’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Blind River burns at 0.003% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Blind River’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 14 km away.
There is forest near Blind River’s homes (12% within 5 km) and more of it further out (23% 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 0.003% a year, Blind River is near the top in Ontario: 50th 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Blind River reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores has mapped flooding for Blind River (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Blind River, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Blind River, The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huron Shores Floodplain Mapping Study | The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Blind River 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 Blind River’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 Blind River: $0.005 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.
At $0.005 per $1,000, Blind River carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Blind River’s $0.005 sits under the median in Ontario, $0.043, and well under Alexandria’s $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.
Nearly every one of Canada’s 2,611 towns (96%) expects more shaking damage than Blind River.
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 Blind River’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).
Some radon around Blind River: 8.6% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Blind River’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.6% over the guideline, against 6.6%. Blind River doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the The District of Algoma Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Blind River than in most towns in Ontario: 8.6% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1.1% 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: Blind River, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Blind River only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Blind River
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Blind River; 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 Blind River, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Blind River faces
Practical steps for Blind River’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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Blind River.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Blind River takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Blind River’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Blind River’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Blind River
Is radon a problem in Blind River?
8.6% of the 93 homes Health Canada tested around Blind River topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Blind River?
Expected earthquake damage in Blind River comes to $0.005 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Blind River at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Blind River’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2003), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Blind River’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Blind River’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Blind River flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Blind River; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).