Photo: Julius177 · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Sturgeon Falls are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 1.9% of area homes above the radon guideline
Little of the land around Sturgeon Falls has burned: 0.6% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.02% a year. Seismic risk in Sturgeon Falls sits near the middle: $0.033 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Sturgeon Falls grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Sturgeon Falls’s hazards
For Sturgeon Falls, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sturgeon Falls faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sturgeon Falls grades A− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Sturgeon Falls, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #233 of 866 in Ontario and #582 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Sturgeon Falls: 0% within 5 km, 0.6% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sturgeon Falls’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Sturgeon Falls at 0.02% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Sturgeon Falls’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 6.1 km off.
The nearer ring around Sturgeon Falls is less wooded (26% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (42%).
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; Sturgeon Falls, at 0.02%, ranks 21st 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Sturgeon Falls stays low, with 92%.
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 Sturgeon Falls
Flood studies whose area touches Sturgeon Falls, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Sturgeon Falls, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
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 Sturgeon Falls.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Sturgeon Falls’ homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Sturgeon Falls: $0.033 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.
Sturgeon Falls’ $0.033 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.1 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Sturgeon Falls, at $0.033, 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: 48% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Sturgeon 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Sturgeon Falls is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Sturgeon Falls: 1.9% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Sturgeon Falls’ 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
Sturgeon Falls’ area, at 1.9%, 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.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Sturgeon Falls, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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 Sturgeon Falls, 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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Sturgeon Falls
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sturgeon Falls; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
For fires near Sturgeon Falls, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Sturgeon Falls faces
What to do about the hazards Sturgeon Falls faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Sturgeon Falls takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Sturgeon 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.
- 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 Sturgeon Falls.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Sturgeon Falls’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sturgeon Falls
Does Sturgeon Falls flood?
Nothing is listed for Sturgeon Falls on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Sturgeon Falls at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.6% of the land within 25 km of Sturgeon Falls has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sturgeon Falls?
About $0.033 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Sturgeon Falls.
Is radon a problem in Sturgeon Falls?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.9% of 103 homes tested in Sturgeon Falls’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Sturgeon Falls’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sturgeon Falls grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).