Fire following earthquake and high-rise buildings

Canada experiences up to 5,000 earthquakes each year, most of them small but some large and – sometime in the future – likely catastrophic. While all provinces and territories have some degree of earthquake risk, the western and southwestern regions of British Columbia are most at risk. Other at-risk areas include the St. Lawrence and Ottawa River valleys.

The Lower Mainland region of British Columbia is exposed to significant earthquake hazard with shaking that could cause significant damage to ordinary buildings and infrastructure. Indeed, in January 1700, the region suffered a magnitude 9 (approximate) subduction earthquake, which generated a tsunami that reached Japan. In December 1949, a magnitude 8.1 event off the Queen Charlotte Islands was widely felt throughout the Pacific Northwest and caused property damage across the region. In June 1886, the Great Vancouver Fire, a non-earthquake-related conflagration, took 21 lives and destroyed 600 to 1,000 structures.