Few places are as safe from hazards as Teston: it beats 90% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Teston: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Teston sits near the middle: $0.028 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Teston grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Teston’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Teston: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Teston faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Teston: A
Seismic risk and radon set Teston’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #74 of 866 in Ontario and #383 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Few fires near Teston: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Teston’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Teston each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Forest makes up 1.4% of the land within 5 km of Teston and 4.2% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Teston, as for 638 of the 871 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Teston is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
Toronto Regional Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Teston (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Teston, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Toronto Regional Conservation Authority studied flooding in an area that includes Teston (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
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Teston has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Teston 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 Teston: $0.028 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.
With $0.028 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Teston is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Teston’s $0.028 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: 51% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Teston.
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 Teston’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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Vaughan)
Little radon around Teston: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Teston: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Teston’s area, at 0%, 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.
Few tests over the guideline: Teston shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Teston can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the York Regional Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Teston
Alerts for Teston 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 Teston 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)
How Teston’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teston | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
| Peace Village 14,598 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
| Hope 6,997 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
| Maple 20,122 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
| Carrville Corners 13,004 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
| Purpleville 19,918 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
| Upper Thornhill Estates 10,435 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.028 | 0% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Teston (low), with Peace Village next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Teston faces
Practical steps for Teston’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Teston’s.
- 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 Teston.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Teston is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Teston’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Teston
Is radon a problem in Teston?
0% of the 95 homes Health Canada tested around Teston topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Teston?
Expected earthquake damage in Teston comes to $0.028 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Teston flood?
There is flood mapping for Teston on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Teston’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Teston grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Teston at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Teston’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).