Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Hazard risk in Carleton Place is higher than in 93% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is rare near Carleton Place: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.12 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 19% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Carleton Place a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Carleton Place’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Carleton Place: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Carleton Place faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Carleton Place grades D for hazard risk
For Carleton Place, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #864 of 866 in Ontario and #2,522 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.
Wildfire is rare near Carleton Place: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Carleton Place’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.002% of the land around Carleton Place each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 11 km from Carleton Place’s homes, none within 5 km.
Close to Carleton Place there is little to burn (3.2% forest fuel within 5 km), but 21% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
Carleton Place ranks 54th of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.002% a year; Sioux Lookout leads with 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, Carleton Place 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.
Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Carleton Place (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Carleton Place, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2019 study by Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority covers Carleton Place, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Mississippi River Flood Plain Mapping Study | Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority | 2019 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Carleton Place has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Carleton Place’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
Shaking is Carleton Place’s costliest hazard: $0.12 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.
Roughly 4 times the typical $0.030: Carleton Place’s $0.12 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Carleton Place’s $0.12 against a median of $0.043, with Alexandria highest 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 23% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Carleton Place.
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 Carleton Place’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).
Test for radon in Carleton Place: 19% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit
More homes than usual test high around Carleton Place: 19% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Carleton Place than in most towns in Ontario: 19% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Carleton Place, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Carleton Place as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Carleton Place
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Carleton Place; 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 Carleton Place come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Carleton Place
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Carleton Place’s low band tops its neighbours; Almonte is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Carleton Place faces
Practical steps for Carleton Place’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Carleton Place sits in.
- 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 Carleton Place’s.
- 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 Carleton Place floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Carleton Place’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Carleton Place
How is Carleton Place’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Carleton Place D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Carleton Place?
The area’s survey found 19% of 108 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Carleton Place.
Does Carleton Place flood?
Carleton Place’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How big is the earthquake risk in Carleton Place?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Carleton Place.
Is Carleton Place at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Carleton Place’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1999) is short of the level that counts.
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).