Photo: Deinocheirus · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Beaverbrook: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 6.2% of tested homes
Fire seldom reaches Beaverbrook: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.002% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.15 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Beaverbrook a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Beaverbrook’s hazards
For Beaverbrook, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Beaverbrook faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Beaverbrook: C+
Two inputs always count for Beaverbrook, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #703 of 866 in Ontario and #1,894 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 64 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Beaverbrook: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Beaverbrook’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Beaverbrook at 0.002% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 16 km from Beaverbrook’s homes since 1986.
Homes in Beaverbrook sit on open or built-up ground (3.9% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 11%.
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
Sioux Lookout burns fastest in Ontario at 0.16% a year; Beaverbrook, at 0.002%, ranks 54th of 871.
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.
Beaverbrook is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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 Beaverbrook
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Beaverbrook: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Beaverbrook on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
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 Beaverbrook.
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 Beaverbrook 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.”
Shaking is Beaverbrook’s costliest hazard: $0.15 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.15 per $1,000, Beaverbrook carries roughly 5 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Ottawa, Beaverbrook included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.15, Beaverbrook is above the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria has the most at $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 15% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Beaverbrook.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Beaverbrook.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Beaverbrook: 6.2% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Beaverbrook’s area 6.2%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Beaverbrook alone, so this card uses the figure for the City of Ottawa Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Beaverbrook’s area, at 6.2%, is above the median in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Beaverbrook with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 low area share in Beaverbrook doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Beaverbrook
Alerts for Beaverbrook 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 Beaverbrook 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)
How Beaverbrook’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beaverbrook | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Katimavik-Hazeldean 11,437 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Kanata Lakes 19,861 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Brookside - Briarbrook - Morgans Grant 15,509 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Glen Cairn 14,020 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Bells Corners West 4,422 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Bridlewood - Emerald Meadows 25,824 · 5.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
Katimavik-Hazeldean (low) has the heaviest fire record of Beaverbrook’s neighbours, and Beaverbrook (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Beaverbrook faces
What to do about the hazards Beaverbrook 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Beaverbrook is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Beaverbrook.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Beaverbrook’s included.
- 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 Beaverbrook.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Beaverbrook
Is Beaverbrook at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Beaverbrook has burned since 1986, the last in 2014, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Beaverbrook flood?
Nothing is listed for Beaverbrook on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Beaverbrook?
In Health Canada’s survey, 6.2% of 64 homes tested in Beaverbrook’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Beaverbrook’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Beaverbrook’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Beaverbrook?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Beaverbrook $0.15 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).