Photo: Sikander Iqbal · CC BY-SA 4.0Madoc faces fewer hazards than 89% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Madoc: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Madoc sits near the middle: $0.030 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Madoc grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Madoc’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Madoc: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Madoc faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Madoc grades A for hazard risk
For Madoc, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #105 of 866 in Ontario and #417 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.
Little of the land around Madoc has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Madoc’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Madoc fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Around Madoc the forest is thin or far off: 0.1% of the land within 5 km and 4% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Madoc, as for 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops the list 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Madoc is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
Madoc is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Toronto Regional Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Madoc, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Toronto Regional Conservation Authority studied flooding in an area that includes Madoc (2021); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Floodline Consolidation | Toronto Regional Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Madoc has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Madoc.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Madoc: $0.030 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 $0.030 per $1,000, Madoc’s earthquake risk is the typical Canadian town’s $0.030.
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Brampton, Madoc included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Madoc, at $0.030, is below the median of $0.043.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 48% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Madoc.
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).
The loss is to Madoc’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Madoc: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Madoc’s survey area reads 0% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Madoc has fewer high tests: 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Madoc shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Madoc can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Peel Regional Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Madoc
Alerts for Madoc 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 Madoc 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 Madoc
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madoc | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Centre 17,851 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Lakelands Village 9,636 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Bramalea Woods 6,521 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| N-Section (bramalea) 7,513 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| Norton Park 8,402 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
| H-Section (bramalea) 9,040 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.030 | 0% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Madoc (low); Centre comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Madoc faces
Practical steps for Madoc’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Madoc’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Madoc’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Madoc.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Madoc is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Madoc
How is Madoc’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Madoc A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Madoc flood?
There is flood mapping for Madoc on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Madoc at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Madoc since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How big is the earthquake risk in Madoc?
About $0.030 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Madoc.
Is radon a problem in Madoc?
The area’s survey found 0% of 90 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Madoc.
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).