Wildfire low, radon 5%: how Oakes stands on hazards
Fire has left almost no mark near Oakes: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.044 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Oakes, near the typical $0.030. Hazard risk gives Oakes a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Oakes’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Oakes: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Oakes faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Oakes grades B+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Oakes, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #494 of 866 in Ontario and #1,255 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Oakes: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Oakes’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Oakes at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Around Oakes the forest is thin or far off: 0.9% of the land within 5 km and 1.9% 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, Oakes 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%), Oakes 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Oakes
Flood studies whose area touches Oakes, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Oakes; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario, 69% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Oakes.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Oakes to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Oakes: $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, Oakes’ earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Oakes ($0.044) matches the middle in Ontario ($0.043), far from Alexandria’s $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 Oakes.
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 Oakes’ 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
5% of homes tested around Oakes are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Oakes’ area, at 5%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town. Oakes doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the City of Hamilton Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Oakes (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 Oakes 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.
The survey sampled homes around Oakes; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Oakes
Alerts for Oakes 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Oakes to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Oakes
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakes | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Marritt 2,759 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Horning 4,587 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Garner 5,456 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Lampman 5,663 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Sulphur Springs 9,404 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Gurnett 4,582 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Oakes has the most fire on record (low); Marritt follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Oakes faces
What to do about the hazards Oakes 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Oakes floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Oakes sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Oakes’ 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 Oakes’.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Oakes
Is radon a problem in Oakes?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of 100 homes tested in Oakes’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Oakes flood?
Nothing is listed for Oakes on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Oakes at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Oakes (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Oakes’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Oakes grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Oakes?
Expected earthquake damage in Oakes 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).