Photo: Larry from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada · CC BY 2.020% of homes tested in Sackville’s area are above the radon guideline
Fire seldom reaches Sackville: since 1986, 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.005% a year). Seismic risk in Sackville sits near the middle: $0.028 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Sackville a grade of C; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Sackville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sackville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sackville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sackville grades C for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Sackville with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #16 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,245 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Sackville: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sackville’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Sackville is 0.005%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 9.4 km from Sackville’s homes since 1986.
Within 5 km of Sackville, 47% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 65%.
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
Sackville burns at 0.005% a year, 24th of 60 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Sackville reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
A flood study covers Sackville, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Sackville, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB holds the flood mapping that covers Sackville (2020), linked below.
| 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, Sackville 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 studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Sackville.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Sackville: $0.028 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.
Earthquake losses in Sackville, $0.028 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Sackville’s $0.028 sits under the median in New Brunswick, $0.036, and well under St. Stephen’s $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: 51% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Sackville.
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 Sackville’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).
Test for radon in Sackville: 20% 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: 20% of tested homes around Sackville, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Sackville shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Region 1 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
3.7% of tests around Sackville passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 20% matches the median in New Brunswick, 20%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Sackville, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go higher.
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.
One home in Sackville can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Sackville
Alerts for Sackville 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. |
Evacuation orders for Sackville come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Sackville’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sackville | Low | $0.028 | 20% | Yes |
| Sackville 1,286 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.028 | 20% | Yes |
| Dorchester 1,130 · 11 km | Low | $0.020 | 20% | Yes |
| Amherst 10,072 · 15 km | Low | $0.022 | 13% | Yes |
| Memramcook 5,616 · 18 km | Low | $0.021 | 20% | Yes |
Dorchester burns a little more than Sackville, 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 Sackville faces
What to do about the hazards Sackville 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?
- 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 Sackville is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Sackville’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Sackville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sackville’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sackville
Is Sackville at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Sackville since 1986 (last in 2018); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Sackville?
Around Sackville, 107 survey homes were tested and 20% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Sackville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sackville’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sackville?
About $0.028 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Sackville.
Does Sackville flood?
There is flood mapping for Sackville 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).