Photo: Dr Wilson · CC BY-SA 3.0Radon is Kedgwick’s main hazard: 29% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Fire seldom reaches Kedgwick: since 1986, 0.9% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.02% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Kedgwick as in most places, at $0.055 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Kedgwick a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Kedgwick’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Kedgwick: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Kedgwick faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Kedgwick: D
Seismic risk and radon set Kedgwick’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of 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.
Little of the land around Kedgwick has burned: 0.5% within 5 km, 0.9% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kedgwick’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.02% of the land a year around Kedgwick, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
More forest grows near Kedgwick’s homes (80% within 5 km) than across 25 km (72%).
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 Kedgwick burns at 0.02% a year, the 16th 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.
Some fire is mapped around Kedgwick, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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 Kedgwick
Flood studies whose area touches Kedgwick, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Kedgwick has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Kedgwick 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Kedgwick.
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 Kedgwick: $0.055 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
1.8 times the typical $0.030: Kedgwick’s $0.055 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in New Brunswick: Kedgwick’s $0.055 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Kedgwick.
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 model counts damage to Kedgwick’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Kedgwick: 29% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Region 4 health region
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Kedgwick’s area has 29%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Kedgwick, 29% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 4.7% over 600, against a median of 20% in New Brunswick.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Kedgwick; 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are in that band and 1.5% 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Kedgwick can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Kedgwick
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kedgwick; 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 Kedgwick, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Kedgwick
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kedgwick | Low | $0.055 | 29% | None listed |
| Saint-Quentin 1,588 · 14 km | Low | $0.060 | 29% | None listed |
| Saint-Quentin 2,294 · 15 km | Low | $0.076 | 29% | None listed |
Kedgwick’s low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Quentin is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Kedgwick faces
Practical steps for Kedgwick’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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 Kedgwick’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Kedgwick’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 Kedgwick.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Kedgwick is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kedgwick
Does Kedgwick flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Kedgwick, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Kedgwick at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Kedgwick’s low band (0.9% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2013) is short of the level that counts.
How is Kedgwick’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kedgwick grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kedgwick?
About $0.055 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Kedgwick.
Is radon a problem in Kedgwick?
The area’s survey found 29% of 86 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Kedgwick.
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).