Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Hazard risk in Smooth Rock Falls is lower than in 85% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Smooth Rock Falls, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.004% a year). Seismic risk in Smooth Rock Falls sits near the middle: $0.034 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Smooth Rock Falls a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Smooth Rock Falls’s hazards
For Smooth Rock Falls, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Smooth Rock Falls faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Smooth Rock Falls grades A for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Smooth Rock Falls’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
Little of the land around Smooth Rock Falls has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Smooth Rock Falls’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Smooth Rock Falls fire takes 0.004% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Smooth Rock Falls’ homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 15 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Smooth Rock Falls: 81% of the land within 5 km, 88% within 25 km.
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 872
In the top quarter in Ontario: Smooth Rock Falls ranks 45th of 872 at 0.004% 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.
Some fire is mapped around Smooth Rock Falls, 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 Smooth Rock Falls
Flood studies whose area touches Smooth Rock Falls, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Smooth Rock Falls, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario, 69% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Smooth Rock Falls.
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 Smooth Rock Falls 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.”
Expected shaking damage in Smooth Rock Falls: $0.034 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.
At $0.034 per $1,000, Smooth Rock Falls’ earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.1 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Smooth Rock Falls, at $0.034, is below the median of $0.043.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 46% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Smooth Rock Falls.
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 Smooth Rock Falls.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Smooth Rock Falls: 1% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Porcupine Health Unit
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Smooth Rock Falls’ area, at 1%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Smooth Rock Falls (1%) 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.
Under 5% puts Smooth Rock Falls with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Smooth Rock Falls can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Smooth Rock Falls
Alerts for Smooth Rock Falls 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 Smooth Rock Falls 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)
Get ready for what Smooth Rock Falls faces
Practical steps for Smooth Rock Falls’ 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Smooth Rock Falls, 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. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Smooth Rock Falls until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Smooth Rock Falls’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Smooth Rock Falls without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Smooth Rock Falls
Does Smooth Rock Falls flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Smooth Rock Falls, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Smooth Rock Falls’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Smooth Rock Falls grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Smooth Rock Falls?
Expected earthquake damage in Smooth Rock Falls comes to $0.034 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Smooth Rock Falls?
The area’s survey found 1% of 96 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Smooth Rock Falls.
Is Smooth Rock Falls at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Smooth Rock Falls’ low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1995) is short of the level that counts.
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).