Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0High radon around Heritage: 25% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Heritage, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.014 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Heritage a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Heritage’s hazards
For Heritage, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Heritage faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Heritage: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Heritage’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #74 of 104 in Saskatchewan and #2,005 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Heritage: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Heritage’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Heritage’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
With 0.1% forest fuel within 5 km and 0% within 25 km, the land around Heritage gives a fire little to burn.
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 Saskatchewan · highest of 104
Of the 104 towns in Saskatchewan, 54 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Heritage among them; La Loche leads at 1.94% a year.
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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Heritage is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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 Heritage is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Water Security Agency
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Heritage: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Heritage the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Water Security Agency’s in 2025.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regina Flood Mapping Study | Water Security Agency | 2025 | final |
| Regina | Water Security Agency | 2020 | under review · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Heritage apart in Saskatchewan, where 55% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
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 Heritage.
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.
Low seismic risk in Heritage: $0.014 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Heritage it is only $0.014, 0.5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Heritage’s $0.014 tops the median in Saskatchewan, $0.006, though Weyburn reaches $0.033.
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 (73%) face more earthquake damage than Heritage.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Heritage is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Regina)
Test for radon in Heritage: 25% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Heritage’s area, at 25%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Heritage than in most towns in Saskatchewan: 25% over the guideline (9.1% is typical), 4.3% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Heritage; 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are in that band and 1.5% 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 Heritage 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). · Radon tests: the Regina Qu'Appelle RHA
Where to get warnings in Heritage
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Heritage; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Heritage come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Heritage
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heritage | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
| Downtown 4,282 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
| Dewdney Place 3,021 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
| Al Ritchie 8,087 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
| Cathedral Village 7,311 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
| Boothill 2,613 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
| Lakeview 7,770 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.014 | 25% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Heritage (low); Downtown comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Heritage faces
Practical steps for Heritage’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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Heritage, 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. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Heritage until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Heritage without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Heritage’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Heritage
Is radon a problem in Heritage?
The area’s survey found 25% of 94 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Heritage.
Does Heritage flood?
A flood study covers Heritage on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Heritage at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Heritage (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Heritage’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Heritage grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Heritage?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Heritage $0.014 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).