Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Belledune faces more hazards than 85% of Canadian towns
Fire reaches the land around Belledune now and then: 2.7% within 25 km since 1986 (0.07% a year), below the high band. NRCan expects $0.040 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Belledune, near the typical $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 24% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Belledune a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Belledune’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Belledune: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Belledune faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Belledune grades D for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Belledune with little fire nearby would get no credit for 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.
A moderate wildfire record for Belledune: 2.7% within 25 km burned, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Belledune’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Belledune is 0.07%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Belledune’s homes came within 16 km, never inside 5 km.
There is forest near Belledune’s homes (75% within 5 km) and more of it further out (82% 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 0.07% a year, Belledune is near the top in New Brunswick: 7th of 61, behind Tracadie (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.
Moderate puts Belledune above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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.
Belledune is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Belledune: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB holds the flood mapping that covers Belledune (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
Flood maps are common in New Brunswick: 93% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Belledune is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Belledune.
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 Belledune $0.040 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.040 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Belledune is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.3 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Belledune ($0.040) 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.
Belledune’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 43% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Belledune’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).
Test for radon in Belledune: 24% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Region 5 health region
At 24% over the guideline, the area around Belledune beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Belledune’s area, at 24%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 4.5% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Belledune is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Belledune as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Belledune
Alerts for Belledune 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. |
Evacuation orders for Belledune come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Belledune faces
What to do about the hazards Belledune faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- 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 Belledune’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Belledune’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Belledune.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Belledune is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Belledune
How big is the earthquake risk in Belledune?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Belledune’s buildings lose $0.040 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Belledune?
Around Belledune, 110 survey homes were tested and 24% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Belledune flood?
There is flood mapping for Belledune on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Belledune at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 2.7% of the land around Belledune since 1986 (last in 2025); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Belledune’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Belledune grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the 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).