Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Cochrane are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 1% of area homes above the radon guideline
Around Cochrane, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. NRCan expects $0.040 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Cochrane, near the typical $0.030. Hazard risk gives Cochrane a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Cochrane’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cochrane: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cochrane faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Cochrane grades A− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Cochrane’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #275 of 866 in Ontario and #644 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.
Few fires near Cochrane: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Cochrane’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Cochrane burns at 0.001% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Nothing inside 5 km of Cochrane’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 12 km off.
There is forest near Cochrane’s homes (43% within 5 km) and more of it further out (75% 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
Cochrane ranks 83rd of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.001% 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, Cochrane 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 flood map inventory lists nothing for Cochrane
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Cochrane: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Cochrane, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Cochrane.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Cochrane floods.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Cochrane: $0.040 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.040 per $1,000, Cochrane’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.3 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Cochrane ($0.040) matches the middle in Ontario ($0.043), far from 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.
Middle of the pack: 43% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Cochrane.
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 Cochrane’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).
1% of homes tested around Cochrane are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Cochrane’s area has fewer, 1%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Porcupine Health Unit, Cochrane included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Cochrane (1%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Cochrane is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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 Cochrane only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Cochrane
Alerts for Cochrane 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Cochrane to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Cochrane faces
What to do about the hazards Cochrane 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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Cochrane’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Cochrane until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Cochrane’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Cochrane without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cochrane
Is radon a problem in Cochrane?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1% of 96 homes tested in Cochrane’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Cochrane at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Cochrane has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cochrane?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Cochrane $0.040 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Cochrane’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Cochrane A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Cochrane flood?
Nothing is listed for Cochrane on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).