Photo: Tier2Cell245 · CC BY 4.0Wildfire low, radon 8%: how Pembroke stands on hazards
Fire seldom reaches Pembroke: since 1986, 0.6% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.02% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.10 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Pembroke grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Pembroke’s hazards
For Pembroke, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Pembroke faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Pembroke: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Pembroke’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Pembroke: 0.6% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Pembroke’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.02% of the land around Pembroke each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Pembroke’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 8.8 km away.
The nearer ring around Pembroke is less wooded (14% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (29%).
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; Pembroke, at 0.02%, ranks 16th 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.
Some fire is mapped around Pembroke, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Pembroke
Flood studies whose area touches Pembroke, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Pembroke, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Pembroke has no study, where 69% of towns in Ontario have one against 58% nationally.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Pembroke to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Pembroke’s costliest hazard: $0.10 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 3.5 times the typical $0.030: Pembroke’s $0.10 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Pembroke’s $0.10 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.
Pembroke sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 25% are higher.
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 Pembroke.
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 Pembroke: 8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Pembroke, 8% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Pembroke (8%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1% went over 600.
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 Pembroke, 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 Pembroke, 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). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Renfrew County and District Health Unit)
Where to get warnings in Pembroke
Alerts for Pembroke 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Pembroke are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Pembroke
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pembroke | Low | $0.10 | 8% | None listed |
| Laurentian Valley 9,714 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| L'Isle-aux-Allumettes 1,413 · 9.9 km | Low | $0.10 | 13% | Yes |
| Petawawa 19,606 · 14 km | Moderate | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
Petawawa has the most fire around it, a moderate band against Pembroke’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Pembroke faces
Practical steps for Pembroke’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Pembroke’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Pembroke until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Pembroke without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Pembroke, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pembroke
Is Pembroke at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Pembroke’s low band (0.6% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Pembroke?
The area’s survey found 8% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Pembroke.
How is Pembroke’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Pembroke C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Pembroke flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Pembroke, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Pembroke?
Expected earthquake damage in Pembroke comes to $0.10 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).