Alloa faces fewer hazards than 89% of Canadian towns
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Alloa, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Alloa is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.030 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Alloa grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Alloa’s hazards
For Alloa, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Alloa faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Alloa grades A for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Alloa’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #105 of 866 in Ontario and #417 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 Alloa: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Alloa’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Alloa burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest fuel rises from 0.1% within 5 km of Alloa to 6.6% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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 Alloa, 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%; Alloa, 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.
Alloa is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Credit Valley Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Alloa: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Alloa the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Credit Valley Conservation Authority’s in 2005.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fletcher's Creek | Credit Valley Conservation Authority | 2005 | final · not public |
| Credit River headwater, Brampton | Credit Valley Conservation Authority | 2004 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Alloa is one of the 69% of towns in Ontario with a flood study on file; across Canada it 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 Alloa’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.
Expected shaking damage in Alloa: $0.030 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Alloa’s $0.030 matches the typical town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Alloa’s $0.030 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.
Alloa sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 48% expect more shaking damage.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Alloa.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: the city of Brampton
Little radon around Alloa: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 0% over the guideline, the area around Alloa is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Peel Regional Health Unit as a whole, not for Alloa alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Ontario is 4% over 200 Bq/m³; around Alloa it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Alloa 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Alloa, 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 Alloa
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Alloa; 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 Alloa come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Alloa’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alloa | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Mount Pleasant North 10,103 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Fletchers Meadow North 11,870 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Mount Pleasant Village 19,719 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Van Kirk 10,014 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Fletchers Meadow South 9,214 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Creditview 5,598 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Alloa (low); Mount Pleasant North comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Alloa faces
Practical steps for Alloa’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. 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 Alloa floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Alloa’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Alloa, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Alloa sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Alloa
How big is the earthquake risk in Alloa?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Alloa’s buildings lose $0.030 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Alloa?
0% of the 90 homes Health Canada tested around Alloa topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Alloa flood?
Alloa’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Alloa at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Alloa’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Alloa’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Alloa 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).