Photo: Percy Russell Doherty · Public domainFort Frances’ hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 14% of area homes over the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Fort Frances, with 0.4% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.01% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.007 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Fort Frances a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Fort Frances’s hazards
For Fort Frances, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fort Frances faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Fort Frances: B
For Fort Frances, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #627 of 866 in Ontario and #1,438 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 Fort Frances: 5.6% within 5 km, 0.4% within 25 km
Past fire around Fort Frances’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Fort Frances is 0.01%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Within 5 km of Fort Frances, 32% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 54%.
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
At 0.01% a year, Fort Frances is near the top in Ontario: 23rd of 871, behind Sioux Lookout (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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Fort Frances stays low, with 92%.
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 Fort Frances
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Fort Frances: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Fort Frances, 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 Fort Frances.
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 Fort Frances.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Fort Frances just $0.007 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Fort Frances it is only $0.007, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year in shaking damage; Fort Frances expects less, $0.007, and Alexandria the most, $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.
Fort Frances is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% of the 2,611 towns 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 Fort Frances 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).
Test for radon in Fort Frances: 14% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Northwestern Health Unit: radon tests
Fort Frances’ survey area reads 14% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Fort Frances than in most towns in Ontario: 14% 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.
More high tests than most: Fort Frances sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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 low area share in Fort Frances doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Fort Frances
Alerts for Fort Frances 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. |
Evacuation orders for Fort Frances come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Fort Frances faces
Practical steps for Fort Frances’ 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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 Fort Frances’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Fort Frances, 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. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Fort Frances until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Fort Frances without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fort Frances
How big is the earthquake risk in Fort Frances?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Fort Frances’ buildings lose $0.007 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Fort Frances?
The area’s survey found 14% of 210 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Fort Frances.
Does Fort Frances flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Fort Frances, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Fort Frances’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Fort Frances B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Fort Frances at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Fort Frances’ low band (0.4% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1991) 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).