Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0High radon around Caraquet: 40% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Wildfire is rare near Caraquet: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. For earthquakes Caraquet is middling, $0.033 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Caraquet grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Caraquet’s hazards
For Caraquet, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Caraquet faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Caraquet: D
For Caraquet, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #45 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,426 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 Caraquet: 0.2% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Caraquet’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Caraquet burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Caraquet’s homes (83% within 5 km) as across 25 km (80%).
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
In the lower half in New Brunswick: Caraquet at 0.001% a year, 42nd of 60, far from Tracadie’s 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, Caraquet 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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Caraquet (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Caraquet: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Caraquet, 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
Mapping in New Brunswick reaches 93% of towns, Caraquet included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Caraquet’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 Caraquet $0.033 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.033 per $1,000, Caraquet’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.1 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Caraquet runs at $0.033 a year, near the $0.036 of the typical town in New Brunswick; St. Stephen has $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.
Caraquet sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 48% expect more shaking damage.
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).
For Caraquet the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Caraquet: 40% of area homes were 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; Caraquet’s area has 40%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Caraquet’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.
At least three tests in ten top the guideline around Caraquet, a level reached by 1.5% of Canada’s towns.
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.
A low area share in Caraquet doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Caraquet
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Caraquet; 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 Caraquet, 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 Caraquet
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caraquet | Low | $0.033 | 40% | Yes |
| Bas-Caraquet 1,391 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.038 | 40% | Yes |
| Caraquet 1,263 · 11 km | Low | $0.043 | 40% | Yes |
| Bertrand 1,209 · 12 km | Moderate | $0.045 | 40% | Yes |
| Inkerman 2,462 · 15 km | Low | $0.044 | 40% | Yes |
| Shippagan 3,073 · 18 km | Low | $0.047 | 40% | Yes |
| Paquetville 2,225 · 19 km | Moderate | $0.043 | 40% | Yes |
Fire is heaviest around Paquetville (moderate), against low for Caraquet.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Caraquet faces
Practical steps for 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Caraquet, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Caraquet’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 Caraquet.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Caraquet takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Caraquet
How big is the earthquake risk in Caraquet?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Caraquet $0.033 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Caraquet at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Caraquet’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2001) is short of the level that counts.
Does Caraquet flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Caraquet; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Caraquet?
The area’s survey found 40% of 115 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Caraquet.
How is Caraquet’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives 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).