Photo: Dr Wilson · CC BY-SA 3.0Radon is Paquetville’s main hazard: 40% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burn rate around Paquetville is 0.16% a year (6.4% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. NRCan expects $0.043 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Paquetville, near the typical $0.030. Paquetville grades D for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Paquetville’s hazards
For Paquetville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Paquetville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Paquetville grades D for hazard risk
For Paquetville, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Some fire around Paquetville: 6.4% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Paquetville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Paquetville is 0.16%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 6.3 km from Paquetville’s homes, none within 5 km.
More forest grows near Paquetville’s homes (89% within 5 km) than across 25 km (83%).
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
Paquetville ranks 6th of the 61 towns in New Brunswick for burn rate, at 0.16% a year; Tracadie leads with 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 Paquetville 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.
Paquetville is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Paquetville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Paquetville 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
Paquetville is one of the 93% of towns in New Brunswick with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
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 Paquetville’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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Paquetville: $0.043 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Paquetville, $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
Shaking damage around Paquetville runs at $0.043 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.
Paquetville’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 36% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Paquetville is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Paquetville: 40% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Paquetville’s survey area reads 40% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Paquetville than in most towns in New Brunswick: 40% over the guideline (20% is typical), 17% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Paquetville is in the top band, 30% or more, with just 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Paquetville, 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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Region 6 health region
Where to get warnings in Paquetville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Paquetville; 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 Paquetville, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Paquetville’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paquetville | Moderate | $0.043 | 40% | Yes |
| Bertrand 1,209 · 8.1 km | Moderate | $0.045 | 40% | Yes |
| New Bandon 1,245 · 13 km | Moderate | $0.040 | 40% | Yes |
| Saint-Isidore 1,372 · 17 km | High | $0.046 | 40% | Yes |
| Caraquet 4,572 · 19 km | Low | $0.033 | 40% | Yes |
Saint-Isidore has the most fire around it, a high band against Paquetville’s moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Paquetville faces
Practical steps for Paquetville’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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Paquetville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Paquetville’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Paquetville is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Paquetville, 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 Paquetville
Is radon a problem in Paquetville?
The area’s survey found 40% of 115 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Paquetville.
Does Paquetville flood?
There is flood mapping for Paquetville on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Paquetville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Paquetville’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Paquetville?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Paquetville $0.043 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Paquetville at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Paquetville’s moderate band (6.4% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2004) is short of the level that counts.
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).