Photo: Mykola Swarnyk · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in Plaster Rock is higher than in 88% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Plaster Rock, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.075 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. More homes than usual carry radon here, 17% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Plaster Rock grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Plaster Rock’s hazards
For Plaster Rock, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Plaster Rock faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Plaster Rock grades D for hazard risk
For Plaster Rock, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Plaster Rock: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Plaster Rock’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Plaster Rock is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
More forest grows near Plaster Rock’s homes (76% within 5 km) than across 25 km (66%).
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
Of the 61 towns in New Brunswick, 16 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Plaster Rock among them; Tracadie leads at 0.28% a year.
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.
Plaster Rock shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Plaster Rock
Flood studies whose area touches Plaster Rock, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Plaster Rock on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
93% of towns in New Brunswick have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Plaster Rock is not yet one of them.
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 Plaster Rock’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.”
Shaking is Plaster Rock’s costliest hazard: $0.075 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 2.5 times the typical $0.030: Plaster Rock’s $0.075 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Plaster Rock’s $0.075 tops the median in New Brunswick, $0.036, though St. Stephen reaches $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 28% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Plaster Rock.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Plaster Rock.
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 Plaster Rock: 17% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A higher share than most: 17% of tested homes around Plaster Rock, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Plaster Rock, 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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Plaster Rock, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Plaster Rock can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Region 3 health region
Where to get warnings in Plaster Rock
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Plaster Rock; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Plaster Rock come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Plaster Rock’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Gordon (low) has the heaviest fire record of Plaster Rock’s neighbours, and Plaster Rock (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Plaster Rock faces
Practical steps for Plaster Rock’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
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Plaster Rock until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Plaster Rock’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Plaster Rock without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Plaster Rock, 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 Plaster Rock
Is radon a problem in Plaster Rock?
The area’s survey found 17% of 112 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Plaster Rock.
Is Plaster Rock at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Plaster Rock’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Plaster Rock flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Plaster Rock, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Plaster Rock’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Plaster Rock D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Plaster Rock?
About $0.075 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Plaster Rock.
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).