Photo: JP3G · CC BY-SA 3.0Radon is Bertrand’s main hazard: 40% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burn rate around Bertrand is 0.05% a year (1.9% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Earthquake risk in Bertrand is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.045 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Bertrand a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Bertrand’s hazards
For Bertrand, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bertrand faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bertrand grades D for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Bertrand’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
Fire reaches the land around Bertrand: 0.1% within 5 km, 1.9% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bertrand’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.05% of the land a year, Bertrand’s burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest fuel is denser close to Bertrand (91% within 5 km) than 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
The land around Bertrand burns at 0.05% a year, the 9th highest rate of 61 towns in New Brunswick; Tracadie tops it 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.
Moderate puts Bertrand 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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Bertrand (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Bertrand, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Bertrand is Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s, dated 2020; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| 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 Bertrand is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Bertrand’s homes are at risk.
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 Bertrand $0.045 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Nothing unusual about Bertrand’s ground: $0.045 against a typical $0.030, 1.5 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in New Brunswick: Bertrand’s $0.045 against a median of $0.036, with St. Stephen highest at $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.
32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Bertrand, which places it in the upper third.
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 Bertrand.
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 Bertrand: 40% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Bertrand’s survey area reads 40% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Bertrand shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Region 6 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Bertrand’s area, at 40%, is above the median in New Brunswick (20%), and 17% 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.
No band is higher: Bertrand 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Bertrand’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Bertrand
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Bertrand; 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 Bertrand, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Bertrand
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bertrand | Moderate | $0.045 | 40% | Yes |
| Paquetville 2,225 · 8.1 km | Moderate | $0.043 | 40% | Yes |
| Caraquet 4,572 · 12 km | Low | $0.033 | 40% | Yes |
| New Bandon 1,245 · 16 km | Moderate | $0.040 | 40% | Yes |
| Inkerman 2,462 · 19 km | Low | $0.044 | 40% | Yes |
The fire record around Paquetville is a touch heavier than Bertrand’s, but the band is the same: moderate (here moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bertrand faces
Practical steps for Bertrand’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- 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 Bertrand.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Bertrand takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Bertrand’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Bertrand, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bertrand
How big is the earthquake risk in Bertrand?
Expected earthquake damage in Bertrand comes to $0.045 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Bertrand?
The area’s survey found 40% of 115 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Bertrand.
How is Bertrand’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Bertrand’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Bertrand at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Bertrand’s moderate band (1.9% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2001) is short of the level that counts.
Does Bertrand flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Bertrand; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).