Photo: JeffJ · Public domainFew places are as safe from hazards as Kearney: it beats 88% of Canadian towns
Wildfire barely registers for Kearney, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). For earthquakes Kearney is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is lower than usual: 1.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Kearney grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Kearney’s hazards
For Kearney, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kearney faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kearney grades A for hazard risk
The grade weighs Kearney’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Little of the land around Kearney has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Kearney’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Kearney burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Kearney’s homes (18% within 5 km) as across 25 km (17%).
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
Near-zero burning puts Kearney with 639 of the 872 towns in Ontario, far below 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Kearney is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
A flood study covers Kearney, from District Municipality of Muskoka: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Kearney: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
District Municipality of Muskoka studied flooding in an area that includes Kearney (2024); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Muskoka Floodplain Mapping | District Municipality of Muskoka | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Kearney has one too.
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 Kearney 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Expected shaking damage in Kearney: $0.023 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.023 per $1,000, Kearney’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Kearney, at $0.023, 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Kearney (54%).
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 Kearney 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).
Radon runs low around Kearney: 1.9% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: radon tests
Kearney’s area, at 1.9%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Kearney than in most towns in Ontario: 1.9% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Kearney, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Kearney’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Kearney
Alerts for Kearney 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 Kearney to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kearney’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kearney | Low | $0.023 | 1.9% | Yes |
| Perry 2,866 · 10 km | Low | $0.024 | 1.9% | Yes |
| Armour 1,698 · 12 km | Low | $0.022 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Burk's Falls 1,031 · 18 km | Low | $0.023 | 1.9% | None listed |
Perry (low) has the heaviest fire record of Kearney’s neighbours, and Kearney (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Kearney faces
What to do about the hazards Kearney 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Kearney’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Kearney.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Kearney is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Kearney, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kearney
How big is the earthquake risk in Kearney?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Kearney $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Kearney?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.9% of 103 homes tested in Kearney’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Kearney’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Kearney A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Kearney at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Kearney’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Kearney flood?
There is flood mapping for Kearney on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
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).