Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0Falkirk East is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Falkirk East’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Falkirk East as in most places, at $0.044 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of homes tested in Falkirk East’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Falkirk East a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Falkirk East’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Falkirk East: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Falkirk East faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Falkirk East: B+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Falkirk East 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 Falkirk East: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Falkirk East’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Falkirk East each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Only 1.5% of the land within 25 km of Falkirk East is forest fuel, and 0.3% close in.
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 Falkirk East, 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Falkirk East, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Falkirk East, from Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Falkirk East: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Falkirk East the inventory points to Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s 2007 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twenty Mile Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2007 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Falkirk East is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Falkirk East floods.
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 Falkirk East: $0.044 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Falkirk East’s ground: $0.044 against a typical $0.030, 1.5 times.
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Hamilton, with Falkirk East one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Ontario: Falkirk East’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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 32% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Falkirk East.
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 Falkirk East’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 Falkirk East are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
5% of tested homes around Falkirk East were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Falkirk East (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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Falkirk East’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Falkirk East only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the City of Hamilton Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Falkirk East
Alerts for Falkirk East 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 Falkirk East 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)
How Falkirk East’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falkirk East | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Gilkson 2,963 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Carpenter 2,941 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Gurnett 4,582 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Lampman 5,663 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Gourley 5,271 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Gilbert 3,181 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Falkirk East (low); Gilkson comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Falkirk East faces
What to do about the hazards Falkirk East 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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Falkirk East takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Falkirk East’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Falkirk East’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Falkirk East.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Falkirk East
Does Falkirk East flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Falkirk East; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Falkirk East’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Falkirk East B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Falkirk East?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Falkirk East $0.044 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Falkirk East at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Falkirk East (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Is radon a problem in Falkirk East?
Around Falkirk East, 100 survey homes were tested and 5% 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).