Photo: DouglasGoldman · CC BY-SA 4.0Crerar’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 5% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire barely registers for Crerar, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk in Crerar sits near the middle: $0.044 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Crerar grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Crerar’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Crerar: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Crerar faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Crerar grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Crerar with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Few fires near Crerar: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Crerar’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Crerar, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Around Crerar the forest is thin or far off: 0.1% of the land within 5 km and 1% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Of the 871 towns in Ontario, 638 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Crerar among them; Sioux Lookout leads at 0.16% a year.
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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Crerar is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
No flood study is listed for Crerar
Flood studies whose area touches Crerar, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Crerar, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Crerar.
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 Crerar’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.”
Expected shaking damage in Crerar: $0.044 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.
Nothing unusual about Crerar’s ground: $0.044 against a typical $0.030, 1.5 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Ontario: Crerar’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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Crerar.
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 Crerar’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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Hamilton
Some radon around Crerar: 5% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the City of Hamilton Health Unit
5% of tested homes around Crerar were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Crerar 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Crerar 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Crerar only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Crerar
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Crerar; 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 Crerar come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Crerar’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crerar | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Jerome 2,820 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Barnstown 6,603 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Bruleville 4,310 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Rushdale 5,154 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Butler 2,922 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Greeningdon 3,296 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Crerar has the most fire on record (low); Jerome follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Crerar faces
What to do about the hazards Crerar 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Crerar is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Crerar’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Crerar’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Crerar.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Crerar
Is radon a problem in Crerar?
Around Crerar, 100 survey homes were tested and 5% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Crerar?
About $0.044 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Crerar.
Does Crerar flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Crerar’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Crerar at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Crerar’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Crerar’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Crerar B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).