Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainHigh radon around Queensbury: 17% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Fire has left almost no mark near Queensbury: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Queensbury sits near the middle: $0.041 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Queensbury a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Queensbury’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Queensbury: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Queensbury faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Queensbury grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Queensbury’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Queensbury has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Queensbury’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Queensbury in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The closest burn since 1986 lies 6.7 km from Queensbury’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest crowds in on Queensbury: 86% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 80% 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
Of the 61 towns in New Brunswick, 16 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Queensbury 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Queensbury, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Queensbury
Flood studies whose area touches Queensbury, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Queensbury, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Queensbury has no study, where 93% of towns in New Brunswick have one against 58% nationally.
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 Queensbury’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 Queensbury $0.041 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Nothing unusual about Queensbury’s ground: $0.041 against a typical $0.030, 1.4 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Queensbury’s $0.041 is close to the median in New Brunswick, $0.036; St. Stephen is 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 43% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Queensbury.
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 Queensbury’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).
Test for radon in Queensbury: 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. · Measured across the Region 3 health region: radon tests
Queensbury’s survey area reads 17% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Queensbury’s area, at 17%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 7.1% 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.
More high tests than most: Queensbury sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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.
The survey sampled homes around Queensbury; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Queensbury
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Queensbury; 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 Queensbury 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 Queensbury’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queensbury | Low | $0.041 | 17% | None listed |
| Prince William 1,233 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.042 | 17% | None listed |
| Bright 3,648 · 10 km | Low | $0.034 | 17% | Yes |
| Kingsclear 3,158 · 11 km | Low | $0.034 | 17% | Yes |
| Nackawic 1,019 · 19 km | Low | $0.028 | 17% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Queensbury (low); Prince William comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Queensbury faces
Practical steps for Queensbury’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Queensbury’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Queensbury until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Queensbury’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Queensbury without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Queensbury
How is Queensbury’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Queensbury’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Queensbury at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Queensbury’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Queensbury?
Expected earthquake damage in Queensbury comes to $0.041 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Queensbury?
17% of the 112 homes Health Canada tested around Queensbury topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Queensbury flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Queensbury (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).