Photo: Vic Brincat from Keswick, Ontario, Canada · CC BY 2.0Around Brighton, 17% of tested homes have radon above the guideline
For Brighton, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.043 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Brighton, near the typical $0.030. Brighton grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Brighton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Brighton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Brighton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Brighton: C−
The grade weighs Brighton’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Little of the land around Brighton has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Brighton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Brighton at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
More forest grows near Brighton’s homes (67% within 5 km) than across 25 km (61%).
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Brighton is zero, as for 16 of the 61 towns in New Brunswick, while Tracadie reaches 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Brighton is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
No flood study is listed for Brighton
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Brighton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Brighton has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Brighton has no flood study on file, though 93% of towns in New Brunswick do (Canada: 58%).
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 Brighton 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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Brighton: $0.043 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Brighton, $0.043 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (1.4 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Brighton at $0.043 beside a median in New Brunswick of $0.036, with St. Stephen on top 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.
Middle of the pack: 36% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Brighton.
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 loss is to Brighton’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
17% of homes tested around Brighton are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Brighton: 17% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Brighton shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Region 3 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Brighton, 17% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in New Brunswick (20%); 7.1% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Brighton among them; 4.6% rank above.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Brighton only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Brighton
Alerts for Brighton 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 Brighton 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 Brighton
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brighton | Low | $0.043 | 17% | None listed |
| Hartland 1,025 · 7.0 km | Low | $0.032 | 17% | None listed |
| Peel 1,176 · 11 km | Low | $0.040 | 17% | None listed |
| Wakefield 2,749 · 15 km | Low | $0.045 | 17% | None listed |
| Wilmot 1,057 · 19 km | Low | $0.062 | 17% | None listed |
| Florenceville-Bristol 1,583 · 19 km | Low | $0.042 | 17% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Brighton has the most fire on record (low); Hartland follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Brighton faces
What to do about the hazards Brighton faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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 Brighton.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Brighton takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Brighton’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Brighton’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Brighton
Is Brighton at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Brighton: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Is radon a problem in Brighton?
Around Brighton, 112 survey homes were tested and 17% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Brighton?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Brighton $0.043 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Brighton flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Brighton’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Brighton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Brighton C−, 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).