Photo: Earl Andrew · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 6.2%: how Fisher Heights stands on hazards
Wildfire isn’t Fisher Heights’ worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Fisher Heights a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Fisher Heights’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Fisher Heights: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Fisher Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Fisher Heights: C+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Fisher Heights with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Fisher Heights: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Fisher Heights’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fisher Heights burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fisher Heights’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 19 km away.
The forest starts beyond town: 1.2% of the land within 5 km of Fisher Heights’ homes is forest fuel, against 7.4% 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
Among the 871 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Fisher Heights is with the 638 near zero.
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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Fisher Heights, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Fisher Heights
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Fisher Heights: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Fisher Heights, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
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 Fisher Heights.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Fisher Heights’ homes are at risk.
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 Fisher Heights’ 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, Fisher Heights carries roughly 5 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Fisher Heights doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Ottawa.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Fisher Heights’ $0.15 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 15% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Fisher Heights.
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 Fisher Heights’ 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).
Some radon around Fisher Heights: 6.2% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
The survey area of Fisher Heights reads 6.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the City of Ottawa Health Unit as a whole, not for Fisher Heights alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fisher Heights’ 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.
Fisher Heights is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Fisher Heights 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 Fisher Heights
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Fisher Heights; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
For fires near Fisher Heights, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Fisher Heights
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fisher Heights | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Borden Farm - Fisher Glen 11,100 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Carleton Heights-Courtland Park 8,621 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Carlington 16,354 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Braemar Park-Belair Heights-Copeland Park 9,248 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| City View 6,468 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Crestview-Tanglewood 8,302 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
Carlington burns a little more than Fisher Heights, 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 Fisher Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Fisher Heights 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Fisher Heights’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Fisher Heights.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Fisher Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Fisher Heights’ figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fisher Heights
Does Fisher Heights flood?
Nothing is listed for Fisher Heights on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Fisher Heights at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Fisher Heights has burned since 1986, the last in 2014, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Fisher Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Fisher Heights C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Fisher Heights?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Fisher Heights $0.15 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Fisher Heights?
In Health Canada’s survey, 6.2% of 64 homes tested in Fisher Heights’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).