Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 4.0Leaside-Bennington is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Toronto Regional Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Leaside-Bennington’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% a year). For earthquakes Leaside-Bennington is middling, $0.043 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is lower than usual: 2.7% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Leaside-Bennington grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Leaside-Bennington’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Leaside-Bennington: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Leaside-Bennington faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Leaside-Bennington grades A− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Leaside-Bennington’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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 Leaside-Bennington: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Leaside-Bennington’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.001% of the land a year around Leaside-Bennington, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Leaside-Bennington’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 23 km away.
Little near Leaside-Bennington’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.2% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.4% 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 871
In the top quarter in Ontario: Leaside-Bennington ranks 83rd of 871 at 0.001% 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.
Leaside-Bennington 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.
Toronto Regional Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Leaside-Bennington (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Leaside-Bennington, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Leaside-Bennington the inventory points to Toronto Regional Conservation Authority’s 2021 study, whose map is the one to check.
| 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, Leaside-Bennington 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 Leaside-Bennington.
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 Leaside-Bennington: $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.
Leaside-Bennington’s $0.043 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.4 times as much).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Toronto, Leaside-Bennington included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Leaside-Bennington’s $0.043 is close to the median in Ontario, $0.043; Alexandria is highest at $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.
Leaside-Bennington sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 36% expect more shaking damage.
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 Leaside-Bennington’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).
2.7% of homes tested around Leaside-Bennington are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Leaside-Bennington’s survey area reads 2.7% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Leaside-Bennington than in most towns in Ontario: 2.7% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Leaside-Bennington 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 Leaside-Bennington only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the City of Toronto Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Leaside-Bennington
Alerts for Leaside-Bennington 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 Leaside-Bennington 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)
Hazards in the places around Leaside-Bennington
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leaside-Bennington | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Mount Pleasant East 16,373 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Thorncliffe Park 20,637 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Broadview North 11,080 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| South Eglinton-Davisville 23,380 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | None listed |
| North Toronto 16,007 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
| Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills 9,909 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.043 | 2.7% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Thorncliffe Park (low), still no more than Leaside-Bennington (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Leaside-Bennington faces
What to do about the hazards Leaside-Bennington 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 Leaside-Bennington’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Leaside-Bennington.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Leaside-Bennington is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Leaside-Bennington’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Leaside-Bennington
How big is the earthquake risk in Leaside-Bennington?
Expected earthquake damage in Leaside-Bennington comes to $0.043 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Leaside-Bennington’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Leaside-Bennington A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Leaside-Bennington at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Leaside-Bennington since 1986 (last in 2001); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Leaside-Bennington flood?
There is flood mapping for Leaside-Bennington on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Leaside-Bennington?
Around Leaside-Bennington, 74 survey homes were tested and 2.7% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).