Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainOn hazards, Saint-Louis comes out behind 85% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Saint-Louis, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.004% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Saint-Louis as in most places, at $0.044 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). 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 Saint-Louis a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Louis’s hazards
For Saint-Louis, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Louis 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-Louis: D
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Louis’ 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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Louis has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Saint-Louis’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.004% of the land around Saint-Louis each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Saint-Louis’ homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 13 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Saint-Louis: 86% 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
Saint-Louis sits mid-table in New Brunswick: 25th of 61 towns, at 0.004% 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Saint-Louis among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Saint-Louis (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Louis: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Saint-Louis 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
Flood maps are common in New Brunswick: 93% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Saint-Louis is among them.
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-Louis.
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-Louis: $0.044 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.044 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Saint-Louis is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in New Brunswick: Saint-Louis’ $0.044 against $0.036; 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.
Saint-Louis sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 32% are higher.
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).
For Saint-Louis the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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-Louis: 20% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Region 1 health region
Saint-Louis’ survey area reads 20% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Louis, 20% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in New Brunswick (20%); 3.7% were over 600.
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 Saint-Louis, 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.
Neighbouring homes in Saint-Louis 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-Louis
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Louis; 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 Saint-Louis, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint-Louis’ 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-Louis | Low | $0.044 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis de Kent 1,026 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.053 | 20% | Yes |
| Saint-Charles 2,189 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.048 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 1,745 · 12 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
| Rexton 1,059 · 14 km | Low | $0.051 | 20% | Yes |
| Richibucto 15 2,126 · 18 km | Low | $0.042 | 20% | Yes |
The fire record around Richibucto is a touch heavier than Saint-Louis’, 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-Louis faces
Practical steps for Saint-Louis’ 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
- 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-Louis until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Louis without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Saint-Louis’ included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Saint-Louis.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Louis
How is Saint-Louis’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Louis D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Louis?
The area’s survey found 20% of 107 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Louis.
Does Saint-Louis flood?
A flood study covers Saint-Louis on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Louis?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Saint-Louis’ buildings lose $0.044 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Saint-Louis at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Louis’ low band (0.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
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).