Photo: Cernavoda · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Saint Andrews is higher than in 89% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Saint Andrews has burned: 0.8% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.02% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.17 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Saint Andrews a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Saint Andrews’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint Andrews: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint Andrews faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Saint Andrews: D
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint Andrews’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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 Saint Andrews: 0.8% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint Andrews’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Saint Andrews is 0.02%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Saint Andrews’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 5.6 km out.
Forest thickens with distance from Saint Andrews: 64% of the land within 5 km, 86% 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
The land around Saint Andrews burns at 0.02% a year, the 16th highest rate of 61 towns in New Brunswick; Tracadie tops it at 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Saint Andrews stays low, with 92%.
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 Saint Andrews (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Saint Andrews, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2020 study by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB covers Saint Andrews, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| 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
Flood maps are common in New Brunswick: 93% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Saint Andrews is among them.
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 Saint Andrews’ 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.
Shaking is Saint Andrews’ costliest hazard: $0.17 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 5.6 times the typical $0.030: Saint Andrews’ $0.17 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Saint Andrews has the highest shaking-damage figure in New Brunswick, $0.17 a year per $1,000; the median is $0.036.
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 14% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Saint Andrews.
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 Saint Andrews’ 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 Saint Andrews: 11% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Saint Andrews’ area has 11%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Saint Andrews (11%) than in the typical town in New Brunswick (20%), yet 1% went over 600.
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 Saint Andrews, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Saint Andrews; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Region 2 health region
Weather and fire alerts for Saint Andrews
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint Andrews; 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. |
For fires near Saint Andrews, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint Andrews’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Andrews | Low | $0.17 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint George 2,675 · 16 km | Low | $0.11 | 11% | Yes |
| St. George 1,757 · 19 km | Low | $0.15 | 11% | Yes |
Saint George (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint Andrews’ neighbours, and Saint Andrews (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint Andrews faces
Practical steps for Saint Andrews’ 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint Andrews’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint Andrews takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint Andrews’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Saint Andrews.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint Andrews
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint Andrews?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint Andrews comes to $0.17 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Saint Andrews at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint Andrews’ low band (0.8% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How is Saint Andrews’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint Andrews’ Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Saint Andrews?
The area’s survey found 11% of 101 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint Andrews.
Does Saint Andrews flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Saint Andrews; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
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).