Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Fontainebleau: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from City of Windsor
Little of the land around Fontainebleau has burned: 0.2% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.007% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Fontainebleau as in most places, at $0.019 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 14% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Fontainebleau a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Fontainebleau’s hazards
For Fontainebleau, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fontainebleau faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Fontainebleau grades C+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Fontainebleau with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #682 of 866 in Ontario and #1,870 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.
Little of the land around Fontainebleau has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Fontainebleau’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.007% burned a year, Fontainebleau is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Fire has stayed at least 8.4 km from Fontainebleau’s homes since 1986.
Around Fontainebleau the forest is thin or far off: 0.2% of the land within 5 km and 0.3% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Fontainebleau ranks 32nd of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.007% 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.
Some fire is mapped around Fontainebleau, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
City of Windsor has mapped flooding for Fontainebleau (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Fontainebleau, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2020 study by City of Windsor covers Fontainebleau, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little River Watershed Floodplain Mapping | City of Windsor | 2020 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Fontainebleau 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Fontainebleau.
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 Fontainebleau: $0.019 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.
Earthquake losses in Fontainebleau, $0.019 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.6 times).
Fontainebleau doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Windsor.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.019, Fontainebleau is below the typical town 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (66%) face more earthquake damage than Fontainebleau.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Fontainebleau.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
14% of homes tested around Fontainebleau are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit: radon tests
More homes than usual test high around Fontainebleau: 14% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Fontainebleau, 14% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fontainebleau is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are higher.
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 low area share in Fontainebleau doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Fontainebleau
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Fontainebleau; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Fontainebleau, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Fontainebleau
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fontainebleau | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| East Windsor 20,876 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| Forest Glade 21,328 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| South Walkerville 6,129 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | None listed |
| Riverside 21,828 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| Remington Park 5,783 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | None listed |
| Devonshire 9,852 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
Riverside burns a little more than Fontainebleau, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Fontainebleau faces
What to do about the hazards Fontainebleau 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
- 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 Fontainebleau.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Fontainebleau’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Fontainebleau, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Fontainebleau takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fontainebleau
Is Fontainebleau at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.2% of the land within 25 km of Fontainebleau has burned since 1986, the last in 2010, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Fontainebleau flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Fontainebleau; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Fontainebleau’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Fontainebleau’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Fontainebleau?
In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of 195 homes tested in Fontainebleau’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Fontainebleau?
Expected earthquake damage in Fontainebleau comes to $0.019 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).