Berrisfield is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Hamilton Conservation Authority
Around Berrisfield, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Berrisfield as in most places, at $0.044 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Berrisfield is ordinary for Canada: 5% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Berrisfield grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Berrisfield’s hazards
For Berrisfield, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Berrisfield faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Berrisfield grades B+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Berrisfield’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: #494 of 866 in Ontario and #1,255 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 Berrisfield: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Berrisfield’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Berrisfield burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Little near Berrisfield’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.2% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0.9% 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
Among the 871 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Berrisfield is with the 638 near zero.
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.
Berrisfield shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
A flood study covers Berrisfield, from Hamilton Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Berrisfield, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Berrisfield is Hamilton Conservation Authority’s, dated 2025; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hill Creek | Hamilton Conservation Authority | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Berrisfield 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 Berrisfield.
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 Berrisfield: $0.044 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 $0.044 per $1,000, Berrisfield’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Ontario: Berrisfield’s $0.044 sits by the median of $0.043, while Alexandria reaches $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.
Berrisfield sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 32% 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 Berrisfield 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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Hamilton)
Some radon around Berrisfield: 5% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the City of Hamilton Health Unit
Around Berrisfield, 5% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Berrisfield (5%) 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Berrisfield with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 Berrisfield 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 Berrisfield
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Berrisfield; 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 Berrisfield 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 Berrisfield
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berrisfield | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Lisgar 3,945 · 0.6 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Quinndale 3,621 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Lawfield 6,021 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Hampton Heights 3,498 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Macassa 2,584 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Huntington 5,024 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Berrisfield has the most fire on record (low); Lisgar follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Berrisfield faces
What to do about the hazards Berrisfield 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Berrisfield.
- 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 Berrisfield.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Berrisfield is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Berrisfield’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Berrisfield
Is radon a problem in Berrisfield?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of 100 homes tested in Berrisfield’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Berrisfield at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Berrisfield (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Does Berrisfield flood?
There is flood mapping for Berrisfield on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Berrisfield’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Berrisfield B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Berrisfield?
Expected earthquake damage in Berrisfield comes to $0.044 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).