Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY 3.0High radon around Petitcodiac: 20% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Fire seldom reaches Petitcodiac: since 1986, 0.4% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.01% a year). NRCan expects $0.026 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Petitcodiac, near the typical $0.030. Petitcodiac grades C for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Petitcodiac’s hazards
For Petitcodiac, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Petitcodiac faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Petitcodiac: C
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Petitcodiac with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Little of the land around Petitcodiac has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.4% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Petitcodiac’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Petitcodiac burns at 0.01% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 7.7 km from Petitcodiac’s homes since 1986.
There is forest near Petitcodiac’s homes (69% within 5 km) and more of it further out (76% within 25 km).
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
Petitcodiac burns at 0.01% a year, 20th of 61 towns in New Brunswick; the leader, 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Petitcodiac burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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 Petitcodiac
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Petitcodiac: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Petitcodiac on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in New Brunswick reaches 93% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Petitcodiac.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Petitcodiac’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Petitcodiac $0.026 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Petitcodiac’s $0.026 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.9 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in New Brunswick peaks in St. Stephen ($0.16); Petitcodiac, at $0.026, is below the median of $0.036.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Petitcodiac’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 53% 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 Petitcodiac 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).
Radon runs high around Petitcodiac: 20% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 20% over the guideline, the area around Petitcodiac beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in New Brunswick at 20% over 200 Bq/m³ (20% is the median), the area around Petitcodiac had 3.7% 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, Petitcodiac 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Petitcodiac’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Region 1 health region
Where to get warnings in Petitcodiac
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Petitcodiac; 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 Petitcodiac, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Petitcodiac
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Havelock burns a little more than Petitcodiac, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Petitcodiac faces
What to do about the hazards Petitcodiac 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 Petitcodiac.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Petitcodiac, 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 Petitcodiac’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Petitcodiac takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Petitcodiac
How is Petitcodiac’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Petitcodiac’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Petitcodiac flood?
Nothing is listed for Petitcodiac on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Petitcodiac?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Petitcodiac’s buildings lose $0.026 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Petitcodiac at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.4% of the land within 25 km of Petitcodiac has burned since 1986, the last in 2013, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Petitcodiac?
In Health Canada’s survey, 20% of 107 homes tested in Petitcodiac’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).