Photo: P199 · Public domainHastings Highlands’ hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 12% of area homes over the radon guideline
Around Hastings Highlands, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Hastings Highlands is middling, $0.026 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hastings Highlands grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Hastings Highlands’s hazards
For Hastings Highlands, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Hastings Highlands faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hastings Highlands grades C+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Hastings Highlands, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #678 of 866 in Ontario and #1,861 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Hastings Highlands has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Hastings Highlands’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Hastings Highlands burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Hastings Highlands’ homes came within 24 km, never inside 5 km.
Within 5 km of Hastings Highlands, 22% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 28%.
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, Hastings Highlands 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.
Hastings Highlands shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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 Hastings Highlands
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Hastings Highlands: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Hastings Highlands has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Hastings Highlands is not yet one of them.
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 Hastings Highlands 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.”
Expected shaking damage in Hastings Highlands: $0.026 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.026 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Hastings Highlands is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Hastings Highlands’ $0.026 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $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.
Middle of the pack: 53% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Hastings Highlands.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Hastings Highlands is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
12% of homes tested around Hastings Highlands are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Hastings Highlands’ area has 12%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Hastings Highlands (12%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 2% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Hastings Highlands, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Hastings Highlands, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Hastings Highlands
Alerts for Hastings Highlands 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 Hastings Highlands 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 Hastings Highlands
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hastings Highlands | Low | $0.026 | 12% | None listed |
| Bancroft 4,331 · 13 km | Low | $0.030 | 12% | None listed |
| Carlow/Mayo 1,048 · 16 km | Low | $0.027 | 12% | None listed |
| Faraday 1,820 · 19 km | Low | $0.030 | 12% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Hastings Highlands (low), with Bancroft next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hastings Highlands faces
What to do about the hazards Hastings Highlands 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Hastings Highlands, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Hastings Highlands’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Hastings Highlands 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 Hastings Highlands sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hastings Highlands
How big is the earthquake risk in Hastings Highlands?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Hastings Highlands $0.026 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Hastings Highlands?
In Health Canada’s survey, 12% of 99 homes tested in Hastings Highlands’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Hastings Highlands flood?
Nothing is listed for Hastings Highlands on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Hastings Highlands at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Hastings Highlands has burned since 1986, the last in 2002, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Hastings Highlands’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hastings Highlands grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the 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).