Photo: Mike Kalasnik from Charlotte, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Wildfire low, radon 6.2%: how Iris stands on hazards
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Iris’ homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% 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). Hazard risk gives Iris a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Iris’s hazards
For Iris, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Iris faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Iris: C+
The grade weighs Iris’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Few fires near Iris: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Iris’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.001% of the land a year around Iris, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Iris’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 18 km out.
Forest fuel rises from 2.9% within 5 km of Iris to 9.3% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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
Iris ranks 83rd of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.001% a year; Sioux Lookout leads with 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Iris reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
No flood study is listed for Iris
Flood studies whose area touches Iris, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Iris, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Iris is not yet one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Iris.
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.”
High seismic risk in Iris: $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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Iris loses $0.15, 5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Iris’ $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 15% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Iris.
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 Iris.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Ottawa
6.2% of homes tested around Iris are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Iris’ area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Iris alone, so this card uses the figure for the City of Ottawa Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Iris (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.
Iris 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Iris’ included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Iris
Alerts for Iris 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 Iris 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 Iris
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iris | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Queensway Terrace North 3,160 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Centrepointe - Briargreen 9,259 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Qualicum - Redwood 4,761 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Bayshore 14,491 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Britannia 8,421 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Leslie Park - Bruce Farm 3,056 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.15 | 6.2% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Queensway Terrace North (low), still no more than Iris (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Iris faces
What to do about the hazards Iris 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
- 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 Iris.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Iris, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Iris is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Iris’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Iris
How is Iris’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Iris C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Iris?
Around Iris, 64 survey homes were tested and 6.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Iris?
Expected earthquake damage in Iris comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Iris at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Iris since 1986 (last in 2014); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Iris flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Iris’ flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).