Kasabonika Lake faces more hazards than 98% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a real hazard for Kasabonika Lake: 23% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.58% a year, in the high band. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 12% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Kasabonika Lake grades D− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Kasabonika Lake’s hazards
For Kasabonika Lake, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kasabonika Lake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kasabonika Lake grades D− for hazard risk
For Kasabonika Lake, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
44% of the land near Kasabonika Lake’s homes has burned since 1986, 23% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kasabonika Lake’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.58% of the land a year, Kasabonika Lake’s burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Kasabonika Lake: 79% within 5 km and 83% 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 872
Kasabonika Lake has the highest burn rate of the 872 towns in Ontario, 0.58% a year; next is Sioux Lookout 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.
Just 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough for the high band where Kasabonika Lake sits; 0.2% 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.
No flood study is listed for Kasabonika Lake
Flood studies whose area touches Kasabonika Lake, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Kasabonika Lake, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
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 Kasabonika Lake.
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 Kasabonika Lake 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.”
Little shaking expected in Kasabonika Lake: $0.005 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.005 per $1,000, Kasabonika Lake carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Kasabonika Lake, at $0.005, is below the median of $0.043.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Kasabonika Lake is among Canada’s quietest towns for earthquakes: 96% of the 2,611 expect more damage.
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).
For Kasabonika Lake the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Kasabonika Lake: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Kasabonika Lake: 12% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Figures for radon tests are published for the Thunder Bay District Health Unit as a whole, not for Kasabonika Lake alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Kasabonika Lake than in most towns in Ontario: 12% over the guideline (4% is typical), 0.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Kasabonika Lake sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
Whatever Kasabonika Lake’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Kasabonika Lake
Alerts for Kasabonika Lake 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 Kasabonika Lake 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)
Get ready for what Kasabonika Lake faces
Practical steps for Kasabonika Lake’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Kasabonika Lake.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Kasabonika Lake, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Kasabonika Lake takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Kasabonika Lake’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kasabonika Lake
Is radon a problem in Kasabonika Lake?
12% of the 108 homes Health Canada tested around Kasabonika Lake topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Kasabonika Lake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kasabonika Lake’s Hazard risk grade is D−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Kasabonika Lake flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Kasabonika Lake (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kasabonika Lake?
Expected earthquake damage in Kasabonika Lake comes to $0.005 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Kasabonika Lake at risk of wildfire?
It is: 23% of the land within 25 km of Kasabonika Lake has burned since 1986, the latest in 2024, which puts it in the high band that lowers Risk.
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).