Photo: Renard Franco · CC0A flood study covers Embrun: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from South Nation Conservation
Fire has left almost no mark near Embrun: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.19 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Embrun’s survey area, 6.1% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Embrun a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Embrun’s hazards
For Embrun, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Embrun faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Embrun: C
Two inputs always count for Embrun, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #825 of 866 in Ontario and #2,055 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Embrun: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Embrun’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Embrun is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest makes up 2.2% of the land within 5 km of Embrun and 4.9% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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 Embrun, 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Embrun sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
South Nation Conservation has mapped flooding for Embrun (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Embrun, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2024 study by South Nation Conservation covers Embrun, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castor River Flood Mapping | South Nation Conservation | 2024 | under review · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Embrun included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Embrun.
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 Embrun’s costliest hazard: $0.19 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Embrun loses $0.19, 6.5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Embrun, at $0.19, sits above 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.
Embrun sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 12% are higher.
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).
For Embrun the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Embrun: 6.1% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 6.1% over the guideline, the area around Embrun is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the The Eastern Ontario Health Unit, with Embrun one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Embrun (6.1%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Embrun is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Embrun’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Embrun
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Embrun; 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. |
For fires near Embrun, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Embrun
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Embrun | Low | $0.19 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Vars 2,767 · 11 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Metcalfe 5,434 · 14 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Edwards - Carlsbad Springs 3,536 · 16 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Casselman 4,535 · 17 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.1% | None listed |
| Limoges 15,122 · 17 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.1% | Yes |
| North Stormont 7,946 · 17 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.1% | Yes |
Nowhere around Embrun burns more: Vars, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Embrun faces
What to do about the hazards Embrun 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.
- 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Embrun’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Embrun is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Embrun.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Embrun, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Embrun
Does Embrun flood?
There is flood mapping for Embrun on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Embrun’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Embrun C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Embrun?
About $0.19 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Embrun.
Is Embrun at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Embrun’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Embrun?
Around Embrun, 99 survey homes were tested and 6.1% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).