Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Quispamsis: 1 on record, latest by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Wildfire is rare near Quispamsis: 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.008% a year. For earthquakes Quispamsis is middling, $0.031 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 11% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Quispamsis grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Quispamsis’s hazards
For Quispamsis, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Quispamsis faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Quispamsis: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Quispamsis’ grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #7 of 60 in New Brunswick and #1,848 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Quispamsis: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Quispamsis’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.008% of the land a year, Quispamsis’ burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Quispamsis’ homes came within 23 km, never inside 5 km.
About as much forest grows next to Quispamsis’ homes (78% within 5 km) as across 25 km (81%).
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 60
In the upper half in New Brunswick but far from Tracadie (0.28%): Quispamsis ranks 22nd of 60, at 0.008% 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.
Some fire is mapped around Quispamsis, 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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Quispamsis (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Quispamsis: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB studied flooding in an area that includes Quispamsis (2020); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| 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
Quispamsis 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.
Flood mapping is shown for Quispamsis to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Quispamsis: $0.031 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Quispamsis’ $0.031 is the typical figure ($0.030): ordinary ground for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in New Brunswick is $0.036; Quispamsis, at $0.031, is right beside it, and St. Stephen tops the list 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.
Quispamsis’ earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 48% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Quispamsis.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
11% of homes tested around Quispamsis are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Region 2 health region: radon tests
More homes than usual test high around Quispamsis: 11% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Below the typical town in New Brunswick (20%) at 11%, the area around Quispamsis still had 1% of tests over 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: Quispamsis 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.
Whatever Quispamsis’ area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Quispamsis
Alerts for Quispamsis come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Quispamsis to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Quispamsis’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Fire is heaviest around Greenwich (moderate), against low for Quispamsis.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Quispamsis faces
Practical steps for Quispamsis’ 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Quispamsis is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Quispamsis’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Quispamsis, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Quispamsis.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Quispamsis
How is Quispamsis’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Quispamsis’ Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Quispamsis?
The area’s survey found 11% of 101 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Quispamsis.
Is Quispamsis at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Quispamsis’ low band (0.3% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Quispamsis?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Quispamsis’ buildings lose $0.031 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Quispamsis flood?
There is flood mapping for Quispamsis on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
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).