On hazards, Saint-Charles comes out behind 87% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Saint-Charles, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.005% a year). NRCan expects $0.048 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Saint-Charles, near the typical $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 20% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Saint-Charles a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Charles’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Charles: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Charles faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Charles grades D for hazard risk
The grade weighs Saint-Charles’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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-Charles: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Saint-Charles’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.005% of the land a year, Saint-Charles’ burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Saint-Charles’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 18 km off.
Forest fuel covers 72% of the land close to Saint-Charles and 87% across 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
Saint-Charles sits mid-table in New Brunswick: 24th of 61 towns, at 0.005% a year, well behind Tracadie (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-Charles 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-Charles (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Charles: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Saint-Charles the inventory points to Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s 2020 study, whose map is the one to check.
| 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-Charles is among them.
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 Saint-Charles 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.
Expected shaking damage in Saint-Charles: $0.048 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.048 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Saint-Charles is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.6 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in New Brunswick expects $0.036 a year; Saint-Charles expects $0.048, and St. Stephen $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 31% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Charles.
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 Saint-Charles’ 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 Saint-Charles: 20% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Saint-Charles’ area, at 20%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in New Brunswick at 20% over 200 Bq/m³ (20% is the median), the area around Saint-Charles had 3.7% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Saint-Charles is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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-Charles; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Region 1 health region
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Charles
Alerts for Saint-Charles 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 Saint-Charles 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)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Charles
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Charles | Low | $0.048 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis de Kent 1,026 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.053 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis 1,830 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.044 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 1,745 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
| Rexton 1,059 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.051 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 15 2,126 · 13 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 2,457 · 15 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
The fire record around Richibucto is a touch heavier than Saint-Charles’, 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 Saint-Charles faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Charles 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Saint-Charles’.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Charles’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Saint-Charles.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Charles is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Charles
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Charles?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Saint-Charles $0.048 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Saint-Charles’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Charles D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Saint-Charles flood?
There is flood mapping for Saint-Charles on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Charles?
In Health Canada’s survey, 20% of 107 homes tested in Saint-Charles’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Saint-Charles at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.2% of the land within 25 km of Saint-Charles has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).