Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Mattawa are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 1.9% of area homes above the radon guideline
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Mattawa: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.077 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Mattawa a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Mattawa’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Mattawa: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Mattawa faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Mattawa: B+
The grade weighs Mattawa’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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Mattawa: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Mattawa’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Mattawa each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Mattawa’s homes came within 7.0 km, never inside 5 km.
About as much forest grows next to Mattawa’s homes (40% within 5 km) as across 25 km (43%).
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
In the top quarter in Ontario: Mattawa ranks 83rd of 872 at 0.001% a year, with Sioux Lookout first 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.
Some fire is mapped around Mattawa, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
No flood study is listed for Mattawa
Flood studies whose area touches Mattawa, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Mattawa, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Mattawa 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 Mattawa 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Mattawa $0.077 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 $0.077 per $1,000, Mattawa carries roughly 2.6 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Mattawa’s $0.077 tops the median in Ontario, $0.043, though 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.
Mattawa sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 28% 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 Mattawa’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).
1.9% of homes tested around Mattawa are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: radon tests
Mattawa’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
Mattawa’s area, at 1.9%, is below the median in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Mattawa is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Mattawa as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Mattawa
Alerts for Mattawa 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 Mattawa to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Mattawa
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mattawa | Low | $0.077 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Papineau-Cameron 1,136 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.073 | 1.9% | None listed |
Nowhere around Mattawa burns more: Papineau-Cameron, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Mattawa faces
What to do about the hazards Mattawa 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Mattawa is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Mattawa’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Mattawa’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 Mattawa.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mattawa
Is radon a problem in Mattawa?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.9% of 103 homes tested in Mattawa’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Mattawa at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Mattawa has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Mattawa flood?
Nothing is listed for Mattawa on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
How is Mattawa’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Mattawa B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Mattawa?
About $0.077 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Mattawa.
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).