Photo: Dr Wilson · CC BY-SA 3.040% of homes tested in Bas-Caraquet’s area are above the radon guideline
Little of the land around Bas-Caraquet has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.003% a year. Seismic risk in Bas-Caraquet sits near the middle: $0.038 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Bas-Caraquet a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Bas-Caraquet’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Bas-Caraquet: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Bas-Caraquet faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bas-Caraquet grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Bas-Caraquet’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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 Bas-Caraquet: 0.3% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Bas-Caraquet’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Bas-Caraquet fire takes 0.003% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
76% of the land within 5 km of Bas-Caraquet is forest fuel, close to the 76% 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 New Brunswick · highest of 61
At 0.003% a year, Bas-Caraquet ranks 27th of the 61 towns in New Brunswick; Tracadie leads at 0.28%.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Bas-Caraquet stays low, with 92%.
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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Bas-Caraquet (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Bas-Caraquet: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB holds the flood mapping that covers Bas-Caraquet (2020), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
93% of towns in New Brunswick have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Bas-Caraquet 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 Bas-Caraquet 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Bas-Caraquet $0.038 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Bas-Caraquet’s $0.038 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.3 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Bas-Caraquet ($0.038) matches the middle in New Brunswick ($0.036), far from St. Stephen’s $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Bas-Caraquet’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 45% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 model counts damage to Bas-Caraquet’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Bas-Caraquet: 40% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Region 6 health region: radon tests
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Bas-Caraquet’s area has 40%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Bas-Caraquet (40%) than in the typical town in New Brunswick (20%); 17% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
No band is higher: Bas-Caraquet is among the 1.5% of Canada’s towns with 30% or more of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Bas-Caraquet as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Bas-Caraquet
Alerts for Bas-Caraquet 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Bas-Caraquet to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Bas-Caraquet
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Inkerman burns a little more than Bas-Caraquet, 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 Bas-Caraquet faces
Practical steps for Bas-Caraquet’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
- 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 Bas-Caraquet.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Bas-Caraquet’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Bas-Caraquet takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Bas-Caraquet’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bas-Caraquet
Is Bas-Caraquet at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Bas-Caraquet’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2005), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Bas-Caraquet?
40% of the 115 homes Health Canada tested around Bas-Caraquet topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bas-Caraquet?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Bas-Caraquet $0.038 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Bas-Caraquet flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Bas-Caraquet; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Bas-Caraquet’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bas-Caraquet D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).