Photo: Not specified · Public domainHazard risk in Saint David is higher than in 86% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Saint David, with 0.4% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.01% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of value, 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. Hazard risk gives Saint David a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Saint David’s hazards
For Saint David, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint David faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint David grades D for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Saint David with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint David has burned: 0.8% within 5 km, 0.4% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Saint David’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Saint David is 0.01%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
About as much forest grows next to Saint David’s homes (84% within 5 km) as across 25 km (88%).
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 David sits mid-table in New Brunswick: 20th of 61 towns, at 0.01% 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Saint David 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.
Saint David is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint David: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2020 study by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB covers Saint David, 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
Mapping in New Brunswick reaches 93% of towns, Saint David 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Saint David.
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.
High seismic risk in Saint David: $0.14 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Saint David loses $0.14, 4.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Saint David’s $0.14 tops the median in New Brunswick, $0.036, though St. Stephen reaches $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.
20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint David, which places it in the upper third.
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 Saint David.
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 Saint David are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Saint David’s survey area reads 11% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Region 2 health region, Saint David included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint David, 11% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³, under the median in New Brunswick (20%); 1% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Saint David among them; 4.6% rank 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.
Neighbouring homes in Saint David can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint David
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint David; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Saint David come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint David’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint David | Low | $0.14 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint Stephen 1,772 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 11% | Yes |
| St. Stephen 4,876 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.16 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint James 1,085 · 9.9 km | Low | $0.12 | 11% | None listed |
The fire record around St. Stephen is a touch heavier than Saint David’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 Saint David faces
What to do about the hazards Saint David 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.
- 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint David without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint David’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint David, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Saint David until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint David
Is radon a problem in Saint David?
Around Saint David, 101 survey homes were tested and 11% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint David?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Saint David $0.14 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Saint David’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint David’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Saint David at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.4% of the land around Saint David since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Saint David flood?
A flood study covers Saint David 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).