Photo: Glenn Ford · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Petawawa: 1 on record, latest by MRC de Pontiac
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Petawawa: 1.7% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.06% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Petawawa’s survey area, 8% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Petawawa grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Petawawa’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Petawawa: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Petawawa faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Petawawa: C+
Earthquake risk and radon make Petawawa’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #810 of 866 in Ontario and #2,002 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Fire reaches the land around Petawawa: 2.8% within 5 km, 1.7% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Petawawa’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Petawawa burns at 0.06% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Petawawa’s homes (33% within 5 km) as across 25 km (36%).
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; Petawawa, at 0.06%, ranks 8th 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.
Only 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with Petawawa, and 2.1% sit 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.
A flood study covers Petawawa, from MRC de Pontiac: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Petawawa, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
MRC de Pontiac holds the flood mapping that covers Petawawa (2006), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chenal-du-Grand-Calumet-Rocher-Fendu | MRC de Pontiac | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Petawawa with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
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 Petawawa 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Petawawa: $0.11 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.
Petawawa’s $0.11 is about 3.6 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.11, Petawawa is above the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria has the most 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.
25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Petawawa, which places it in the upper third.
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 model counts damage to Petawawa’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Petawawa: 8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 8% over the guideline, the area around Petawawa is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Petawawa shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Petawawa’s area, at 8%, is above the median in Ontario (4%), and 1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Petawawa, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Petawawa as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Petawawa
Alerts for Petawawa 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. |
Evacuation orders for Petawawa come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Petawawa
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petawawa | Moderate | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| Laurentian Valley 9,714 · 13 km | Low | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| Pembroke 15,479 · 14 km | Low | $0.10 | 8% | None listed |
| L'Isle-aux-Allumettes 1,413 · 17 km | Low | $0.10 | 13% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Petawawa has the most fire on record (moderate); Laurentian Valley follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Petawawa faces
Practical steps for Petawawa’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- 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.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Petawawa takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Petawawa’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Petawawa.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Petawawa’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Petawawa
How big is the earthquake risk in Petawawa?
About $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Petawawa.
Does Petawawa flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Petawawa; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Petawawa?
8% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Petawawa topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Petawawa at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Petawawa’s band is moderate, with 1.7% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Petawawa’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Petawawa’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).