Flood mapping exists for Carpenter: 1 on record, latest by Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
Around Carpenter, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Carpenter is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.044 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Carpenter as elsewhere, 5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Carpenter a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Carpenter’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Carpenter: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Carpenter faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Carpenter grades B+ for hazard risk
For Carpenter, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Carpenter has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Carpenter’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Carpenter fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Forest makes up 0.2% of the land within 5 km of Carpenter and 1.3% 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
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Carpenter, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Carpenter, burning rounds to zero.
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.
Carpenter is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Carpenter: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Carpenter is Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s, dated 2007; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twenty Mile Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2007 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Carpenter with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
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 Carpenter’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.
Expected shaking damage in Carpenter: $0.044 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Carpenter’s ground: $0.044 against a typical $0.030, 1.5 times.
Carpenter doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Hamilton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Ontario: Carpenter’s $0.044 against $0.043; 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.
32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Carpenter, which places it in the upper third.
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 Carpenter’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).
5% of homes tested around Carpenter are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Carpenter’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 5% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Carpenter than in most towns in Ontario: 5% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Carpenter, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank 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.
One home in Carpenter can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the City of Hamilton Health Unit)
Weather and fire alerts for Carpenter
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Carpenter; 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 Carpenter 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 Carpenter
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carpenter | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Falkirk East 4,961 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Lampman 5,663 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Gilkson 2,963 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Gurnett 4,582 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Gourley 5,271 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Fessenden 3,551 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Carpenter has the most fire on record (low); Falkirk East follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Carpenter faces
Practical steps for Carpenter’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.
- 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
- 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 Carpenter.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Carpenter’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Carpenter is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Carpenter’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Carpenter
Does Carpenter flood?
There is flood mapping for Carpenter on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Carpenter’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Carpenter B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Carpenter?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Carpenter $0.044 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Carpenter at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Carpenter’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 Carpenter?
The area’s survey found 5% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Carpenter.
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).