Photo: Ross Dunn · CC BY-SA 2.0Flood mapping exists for Fitzroy: 3 on record, latest by Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority
Wildfire is rare near Fitzroy: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 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. Radon around Fitzroy is ordinary for Canada: 6.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Fitzroy grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Fitzroy’s hazards
For Fitzroy, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fitzroy faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Fitzroy: C+
For Fitzroy, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #703 of 866 in Ontario and #1,894 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. 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.
Few fires near Fitzroy: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Fitzroy’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Fitzroy burns at 0.002% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Fitzroy is less wooded (15% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (20%).
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 Fitzroy burns at 0.002% a year, the 54th 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Fitzroy burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
Fitzroy is on the flood map inventory: 3 studies, latest by Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Fitzroy: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Fitzroy the inventory points to 3 studies, most recently Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority’s in 2019.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Mississippi River Flood Plain Mapping Study | Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority | 2019 | final · not public |
| Gatineau-Argenteuil-Collindes-de-l'Outaouais | Municipalité de Pontiac | 2016 | final |
| Chenal-du-Grand-Calumet-Rocher-Fendu | MRC de Pontiac | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Fitzroy is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 2010s brought the most flood studies for Fitzroy (2 of 3), the first dating from the 2000s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Fitzroy.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Fitzroy’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Fitzroy $0.15 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 5 times the typical $0.030: Fitzroy’s $0.15 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Fitzroy’s $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 Fitzroy.
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).
For Fitzroy the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Ottawa)
6.2% of homes tested around Fitzroy are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the City of Ottawa Health Unit
The survey area of Fitzroy reads 6.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Fitzroy (6.2%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%).
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 Fitzroy, 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 Fitzroy, 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 Fitzroy
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Fitzroy; 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 Fitzroy, 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 Fitzroy
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
The neighbour with the most fire is Kinburn (low), still no more than Fitzroy (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Fitzroy faces
Practical steps for Fitzroy’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
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Fitzroy until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Fitzroy without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Fitzroy’s included.
- 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 Fitzroy.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fitzroy
Is Fitzroy at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Fitzroy’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2021) is short of the level that counts.
How is Fitzroy’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Fitzroy C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Fitzroy flood?
A flood study covers Fitzroy on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Fitzroy?
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 Fitzroy.
How big is the earthquake risk in Fitzroy?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Fitzroy $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).