Photo: WolfFang1990 · CC BY-SA 4.0Timmins faces fewer hazards than 90% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is rare near Timmins: 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.008% a year. NRCan expects $0.022 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Timmins, near the typical $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Timmins a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Timmins’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Timmins: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Timmins faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Timmins: A
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Timmins with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #101 of 866 in Ontario and #411 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Timmins: 0.7% within 5 km, 0.3% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Timmins’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.008% of the land a year around Timmins, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The nearer ring around Timmins is less wooded (55% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (72%).
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
At 0.008% a year, Timmins is near the top in Ontario: 26th of 871, behind Sioux Lookout (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.
Timmins 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.
Flooding around Timmins is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Mattagami Region Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Timmins, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Timmins, the newest Mattagami Region Conservation Authority’s from 2025, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mattagami Region - Timmins | Mattagami Region Conservation Authority | 2025 | under review |
| Mattagami River Flood Plain Mapping Modernization | Mattagami Region Conservation Authority | 2019 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Timmins is one of the 69% of towns in Ontario with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Timmins has come in steps: 2 studies from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Timmins.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Timmins 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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Timmins: $0.022 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.
Nothing unusual about Timmins’ ground: $0.022 against a typical $0.030, 0.7 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Timmins’ $0.022 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: 61% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Timmins.
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 Timmins’ 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).
1% of homes tested around Timmins are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A lower share than most: 1% of tested homes around Timmins, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Porcupine Health Unit, with Timmins one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Timmins’ area, at 1%, 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 Timmins, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Timmins; 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 Timmins
Alerts for Timmins 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Timmins are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Timmins faces
What to do about the hazards Timmins 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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 Timmins’ 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 Timmins’.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Timmins floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Timmins sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Timmins
Is radon a problem in Timmins?
Around Timmins, 96 survey homes were tested and 1% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Timmins’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Timmins’ Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Timmins at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.3% of the land around Timmins since 1986 (last in 2012); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Timmins?
Expected earthquake damage in Timmins comes to $0.022 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Timmins flood?
Timmins’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).