Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Oro-Medonte: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Oro-Medonte: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.015 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 0.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Oro-Medonte a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Oro-Medonte’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Oro-Medonte: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Oro-Medonte faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Oro-Medonte grades A+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Oro-Medonte’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #6 of 866 in Ontario and #216 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 Oro-Medonte: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Oro-Medonte’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Oro-Medonte burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 24 km from Oro-Medonte’s homes since 1986.
15% of the land within 5 km of Oro-Medonte is forest fuel, close to the 16% 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 871
The land around Oro-Medonte 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; Oro-Medonte 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.
A flood study covers Oro-Medonte, from City of Orillia: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Oro-Medonte: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
City of Orillia holds the flood mapping that covers Oro-Medonte (2025), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill Creek and Ben's Ditch Flood Plain Mapping - Two Dimensional (2D) Hydraulic Modelling | City of Orillia | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Oro-Medonte included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Oro-Medonte 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Oro-Medonte just $0.015 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.015 per $1,000, Oro-Medonte carries 0.5 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); Oro-Medonte, at $0.015, 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.
72% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Oro-Medonte.
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 Oro-Medonte’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).
0.9% of homes tested around Oro-Medonte are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Oro-Medonte’s area, at 0.9%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. Oro-Medonte doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Ontario is 4% over 200 Bq/m³; around Oro-Medonte it is 0.9%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Oro-Medonte’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Oro-Medonte can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Oro-Medonte
Alerts for Oro-Medonte 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Oro-Medonte are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Oro-Medonte
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Orillia burns a little more than Oro-Medonte, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Oro-Medonte faces
Practical steps for Oro-Medonte’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Oro-Medonte’s figure is its subdivision’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 Oro-Medonte floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Oro-Medonte’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Oro-Medonte sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Oro-Medonte
Does Oro-Medonte flood?
Oro-Medonte’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Oro-Medonte?
0.9% of the 109 homes Health Canada tested around Oro-Medonte topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Oro-Medonte?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Oro-Medonte $0.015 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Oro-Medonte’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Oro-Medonte A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Oro-Medonte at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Oro-Medonte’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2018), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).