Photo: Hearst1958 · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Hearst: it beats almost every Canadian town
Fire has left almost no mark near Hearst: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.008 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 1% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Hearst a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Hearst’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hearst: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hearst faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hearst grades A+ for hazard risk
For Hearst, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #1 of 866 in Ontario and #6 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 Hearst: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hearst’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Hearst’s 0.001% is in the low band.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 19 km from Hearst’s homes, none within 5 km.
The nearer ring around Hearst is less wooded (69% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (86%).
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
The land around Hearst burns at 0.001% a year, the 83rd highest rate of 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops it at 0.16%.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Hearst stays low, with 92%.
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 Hearst
Flood studies whose area touches Hearst, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Hearst 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 Hearst.
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 Hearst’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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Hearst just $0.008 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.008 per $1,000, Hearst carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Hearst’s $0.008 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.
Hearst is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 87% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 Hearst’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).
Little radon around Hearst: 1% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Porcupine Health Unit: radon tests
Hearst’s survey area reads 1% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Hearst has fewer high tests: 1%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Hearst with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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 Hearst; 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 Hearst
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Hearst; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Hearst, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Hearst faces
Practical steps for Hearst’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
- 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 Hearst sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Hearst’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Hearst floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Hearst’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hearst
Is Hearst at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Hearst’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 1991), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Hearst’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hearst grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hearst?
Expected earthquake damage in Hearst comes to $0.008 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Hearst?
1% of the 96 homes Health Canada tested around Hearst topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Hearst flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Hearst (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).