Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Ramara faces fewer hazards than 89% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches Ramara: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.002% a year). For earthquakes Ramara is middling, $0.026 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0.9% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Ramara a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Ramara’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Ramara: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Ramara faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Ramara: A
Seismic risk and radon set Ramara’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #160 of 866 in Ontario and #476 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.
Few fires near Ramara: 0.3% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Ramara’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Ramara burns at 0.002% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Ramara is less wooded (16% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (22%).
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
In the top quarter in Ontario: Ramara ranks 54th of 871 at 0.002% a year, with Sioux Lookout first 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.
Ramara is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
A flood study covers Ramara, from Township of Ramara: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Ramara, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Township of Ramara holds the flood mapping that covers Ramara (2024), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake St. John Floodplain Mapping Study | Township of Ramara | 2024 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Ramara has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Ramara floods.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Ramara: $0.026 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.
Ramara’s $0.026 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.9 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Ramara’s $0.026 sits under the median in Ontario, $0.043, and well under Alexandria’s $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.
Middle of the pack: 53% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Ramara.
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 Ramara’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).
Little radon around Ramara: 0.9% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Ramara: 0.9% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Nobody publishes radon tests for Ramara alone, so this card uses the figure for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ramara’s area, at 0.9%, is below the median in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Ramara shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 survey sampled homes around Ramara; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Ramara
Alerts for Ramara 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 Ramara 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)
How Ramara’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ramara | Low | $0.026 | 0.9% | Yes |
| Chippewas of Rama First Nation 1,149 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.028 | 0.9% | Yes |
| Orillia 37,735 · 16 km | Low | $0.019 | 0.9% | Yes |
| Severn 15,716 · 18 km | Low | $0.019 | 0.9% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Ramara (low), with Chippewas of Rama First Nation next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ramara faces
Practical steps for Ramara’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Ramara’s.
- 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 Ramara.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Ramara is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Ramara’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ramara
Does Ramara flood?
There is flood mapping for Ramara on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Ramara?
0.9% of the 109 homes Health Canada tested around Ramara topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Ramara’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Ramara grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Ramara at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Ramara’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ramara?
Expected earthquake damage in Ramara comes to $0.026 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).