Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 4.0Clairlea-Birchmount is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Toronto Regional Conservation Authority
Around Clairlea-Birchmount, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquake risk in Clairlea-Birchmount is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.043 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 2.7% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Clairlea-Birchmount a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Clairlea-Birchmount’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Clairlea-Birchmount: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Clairlea-Birchmount faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Clairlea-Birchmount grades A− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Clairlea-Birchmount with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #285 of 866 in Ontario and #700 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 74 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Clairlea-Birchmount: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Clairlea-Birchmount’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Clairlea-Birchmount burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Clairlea-Birchmount’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 19 km away.
Forest makes up 0.3% of the land within 5 km of Clairlea-Birchmount and 2% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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
Clairlea-Birchmount ranks 83rd of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.001% a year; Sioux Lookout leads with 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Clairlea-Birchmount among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
A flood study covers Clairlea-Birchmount, from Toronto Regional Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Clairlea-Birchmount, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Toronto Regional Conservation Authority studied flooding in an area that includes Clairlea-Birchmount (2021); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Floodline Consolidation | Toronto Regional Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Clairlea-Birchmount included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Clairlea-Birchmount.
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 Clairlea-Birchmount: $0.043 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.
Nothing unusual about Clairlea-Birchmount’s ground: $0.043 against a typical $0.030, 1.4 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Clairlea-Birchmount runs at $0.043 a year, near the $0.043 of the typical town in Ontario; 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: 36% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Clairlea-Birchmount.
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 loss is to Clairlea-Birchmount’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: the city of Toronto
2.7% of homes tested around Clairlea-Birchmount 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: 2.7% of tested homes around Clairlea-Birchmount, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Clairlea-Birchmount doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the City of Toronto Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Clairlea-Birchmount has fewer high tests: 2.7%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Clairlea-Birchmount is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Clairlea-Birchmount only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Clairlea-Birchmount
Alerts for Clairlea-Birchmount 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Clairlea-Birchmount to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Clairlea-Birchmount
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clairlea-Birchmount | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Oakridge 13,913 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Kennedy Park 17,156 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Birchcliffe-Cliffside 23,115 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Ionview 13,382 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| O'Connor-Parkview 18,746 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Taylor-Massey 15,050 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Oakridge (low), still no more than Clairlea-Birchmount (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Clairlea-Birchmount faces
What to do about the hazards Clairlea-Birchmount 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 Clairlea-Birchmount’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Clairlea-Birchmount takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Clairlea-Birchmount.
- 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 Clairlea-Birchmount’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Clairlea-Birchmount
Is Clairlea-Birchmount at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Clairlea-Birchmount since 1986 (last in 2001); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Clairlea-Birchmount?
Around Clairlea-Birchmount, 74 survey homes were tested and 2.7% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Clairlea-Birchmount flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Clairlea-Birchmount; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Clairlea-Birchmount?
About $0.043 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Clairlea-Birchmount.
How is Clairlea-Birchmount’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Clairlea-Birchmount A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).