Photo: Canadian Postcard Company · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Fallingbrook: 5 on record, latest by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Fallingbrook’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is about average around Fallingbrook: 6.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Fallingbrook grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Fallingbrook’s hazards
For Fallingbrook, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fallingbrook faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Fallingbrook: C+
Earthquake risk and radon make Fallingbrook’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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. Only 64 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Fallingbrook has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Fallingbrook’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.000% burned a year, Fallingbrook is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
No fire has burned within 5 km of Fallingbrook’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 17 km away.
Close to Fallingbrook there is little to burn (2.6% forest fuel within 5 km), but 8.9% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
Near-zero burning puts Fallingbrook with 638 of the 871 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, Fallingbrook 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.
Fallingbrook is on the flood map inventory: 5 studies, latest by Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Fallingbrook, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
5 studies on the inventory touch Fallingbrook, the newest Rideau Valley Conservation Authority’s from 2019, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billberry Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2019 | final |
| Becketts Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
| Rideau River, Hogs Back to Rideau Falls | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2016 | final |
| Cardinal Creek | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
| Ottawa River | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Fallingbrook 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 Fallingbrook 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.
High seismic risk in Fallingbrook: $0.15 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 5 times the typical $0.030: Fallingbrook’s $0.15 marks real seismic exposure.
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Ottawa, Fallingbrook included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Fallingbrook’s $0.15 against a median of $0.043, with Alexandria highest 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 Fallingbrook.
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 Fallingbrook 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 about average around Fallingbrook: 6.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the City of Ottawa Health Unit: radon tests
The survey area of Fallingbrook reads 6.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Ontario is 4% over 200 Bq/m³; the survey area around Fallingbrook has 6.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Fallingbrook, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Fallingbrook, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Fallingbrook
Alerts for Fallingbrook 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 Fallingbrook 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 Fallingbrook
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fallingbrook | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Queenswood Heights 8,998 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Cardinal Creek 11,676 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Queenswood - Chatelaine 4,537 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Portobello South 29,960 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Orleans Village - Chateauneuf 12,399 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Convent Glen - Orleans Woods 14,118 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Fallingbrook (low); Queenswood Heights comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Fallingbrook faces
Practical steps for Fallingbrook’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Fallingbrook.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Fallingbrook’s included.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Fallingbrook takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Fallingbrook.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fallingbrook
Is Fallingbrook at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Fallingbrook’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Fallingbrook’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Fallingbrook grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Fallingbrook?
The area’s survey found 6.2% of 64 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Fallingbrook.
How big is the earthquake risk in Fallingbrook?
About $0.15 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Fallingbrook.
Does Fallingbrook flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Fallingbrook; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the 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).