Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0High radon around Bouctouche: 20% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Burn scars are few around Bouctouche, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). For earthquakes Bouctouche is middling, $0.039 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Bouctouche a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Bouctouche’s hazards
For Bouctouche, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bouctouche faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Bouctouche: C−
Earthquake risk and radon make Bouctouche’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #39 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,396 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Few fires near Bouctouche: 0.3% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Bouctouche’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Bouctouche’s 0.002% is in the low band.
The nearer ring around Bouctouche is less wooded (63% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (76%).
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 60
Bouctouche sits mid-table in New Brunswick: 30th of 60 towns, at 0.002% a year, well 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Bouctouche reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank higher.
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.
Bouctouche is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Bouctouche: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Bouctouche, Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s from 2020, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| 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%; Bouctouche has one too.
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 Bouctouche’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.
Expected shaking damage in Bouctouche: $0.039 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Bouctouche’s ground: $0.039 against a typical $0.030, 1.3 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Bouctouche ($0.039) 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Bouctouche (45%).
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 Bouctouche.
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 Bouctouche: 20% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A higher share than most: 20% of tested homes around Bouctouche, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Region 1 health region, with Bouctouche one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Bouctouche’s area, at 20%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 3.7% 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Bouctouche, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Bouctouche, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Bouctouche
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Bouctouche; 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. |
For fires near Bouctouche, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Bouctouche
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bouctouche | Low | $0.039 | 20% | Yes |
| Wellington 3,458 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.038 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint Mary 2,083 · 11 km | Low | $0.036 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Antoine 1,880 · 12 km | Low | $0.040 | 20% | None listed |
| Cocagne 2,982 · 14 km | Low | $0.035 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 2,457 · 18 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
The fire record around Saint-Antoine is a touch heavier than Bouctouche’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bouctouche faces
Practical steps for Bouctouche’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 Bouctouche, 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Bouctouche 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 Bouctouche’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Bouctouche.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bouctouche
Is radon a problem in Bouctouche?
The area’s survey found 20% of 107 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Bouctouche.
Is Bouctouche at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Bouctouche’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bouctouche?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Bouctouche’s buildings lose $0.039 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Bouctouche flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Bouctouche; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Bouctouche’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Bouctouche’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).