Poplar Park’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 5% of area homes over the radon guideline
Fire has left almost no mark near Poplar Park: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Poplar Park 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. Hazard risk gives Poplar Park a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Poplar Park’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Poplar Park: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Poplar Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Poplar Park: B+
Seismic risk and radon set Poplar Park’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of 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.
Little of the land around Poplar Park has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Poplar Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Poplar Park is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Poplar Park: forest fuel is 0.2% within 5 km and 0.5% 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
Of the 871 towns in Ontario, 638 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Poplar Park 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Poplar Park, 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.
No flood study is listed for Poplar Park
Flood studies whose area touches Poplar Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Poplar Park has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Poplar Park.
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 Poplar Park 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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Poplar Park: $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.
Nothing unusual about Poplar Park’s ground: $0.044 against a typical $0.030, 1.5 times.
Poplar Park shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Hamilton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Ontario: Poplar Park’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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 32% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Poplar Park.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Poplar Park’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Poplar Park: 5% 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
5% of tested homes around Poplar Park 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 Poplar Park 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Poplar Park, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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 Poplar Park only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Poplar Park
Alerts for Poplar Park 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 Poplar Park 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)
Hazards in the places around Poplar Park
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poplar Park | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Eastdale 2,703 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Guernsey 3,808 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Highway Valley 4,469 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Riverdale East 3,416 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Lakeshore 3,127 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
| Westmeria 2,646 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Eastdale (low), still no more than Poplar Park (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Poplar Park faces
Practical steps for Poplar Park’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Poplar Park’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Poplar Park’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Poplar Park.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Poplar Park is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Poplar Park
How is Poplar Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Poplar Park’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Poplar Park flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Poplar Park (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Poplar Park?
About $0.044 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Poplar Park.
Is radon a problem in Poplar Park?
5% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Poplar Park topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Poplar Park at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Poplar Park’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).