Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Strong: it beats 87% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Strong, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Strong as in most places, at $0.025 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.9% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Strong grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Strong’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Strong: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Strong faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Strong grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Strong’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Strong: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Strong’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Strong burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The ring nearest Strong is the most wooded: 30% forest fuel within 5 km against 23% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Strong, as for 639 of the 872 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops the list 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Strong, burning rounds to zero.
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 Strong
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Strong: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Strong has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Strong 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 mapping is shown for Strong 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Strong $0.025 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Strong’s $0.025 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Strong’s $0.025 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $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 Strong.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Strong’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
1.9% of homes tested around Strong are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit
Strong’s area, at 1.9%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Strong than in most towns in Ontario: 1.9% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Strong’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Strong only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Strong
Alerts for Strong 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 Strong 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 Strong
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong | Low | $0.025 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Sundridge 1,056 · 5.5 km | Low | $0.015 | 1.9% | None listed |
| South River 1,211 · 13 km | Low | $0.035 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Burk's Falls 1,031 · 13 km | Low | $0.023 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Armour 1,698 · 15 km | Low | $0.022 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Magnetawan 1,888 · 19 km | Low | $0.025 | 1.9% | None listed |
Sundridge (low) has the heaviest fire record of Strong’s neighbours, and Strong (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Strong faces
Practical steps for Strong’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Strong’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Strong’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Strong is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Strong.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Strong
Is Strong at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Strong: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
How is Strong’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Strong’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Strong?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Strong $0.025 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Strong?
1.9% of the 103 homes Health Canada tested around Strong topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Strong flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Strong (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).