Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0On hazards, Rexton comes out behind 88% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Rexton’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Rexton is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.051 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 20% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Rexton a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rexton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rexton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rexton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Rexton: D
Seismic risk and radon set Rexton’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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 Rexton has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Rexton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Rexton’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 21 km from Rexton’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest thickens with distance from Rexton: 64% of the land within 5 km, 83% 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, Rexton 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.
Rexton 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.
A flood study covers Rexton, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rexton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Rexton 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
Mapping in New Brunswick reaches 93% of towns, Rexton included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Rexton’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Rexton $0.051 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.051 per $1,000, Rexton’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in New Brunswick: Rexton’s $0.051 against a median of $0.036, with St. Stephen 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Rexton.
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 loss is to Rexton’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Rexton: 20% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Region 1 health region
Rexton’s area, at 20%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Rexton’s area, at 20%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 3.7% 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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Rexton, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Rexton only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Rexton
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rexton; 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 Rexton, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rexton
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rexton | Low | $0.051 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 1,745 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 2,457 · 7.4 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Charles 2,189 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.048 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 15 2,126 · 11 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis de Kent 1,026 · 12 km | Low | $0.053 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis 1,830 · 14 km | Low | $0.044 | 20% | Yes |
The fire record around Richibucto is a touch heavier than Rexton’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rexton faces
Practical steps for Rexton’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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 Rexton’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rexton’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 Rexton without grading them.
- 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 Rexton until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rexton
How is Rexton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Rexton D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rexton?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Rexton $0.051 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Rexton at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Rexton’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 1992), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Rexton?
20% of the 107 homes Health Canada tested around Rexton topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Rexton flood?
A flood study covers Rexton on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t 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).