Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainSimonds is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Simonds, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). NRCan expects $0.026 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Simonds, near the typical $0.030. More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Simonds grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Simonds’s hazards
For Simonds, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Simonds faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Simonds: C+
The grade weighs Simonds’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #2 of 60 in New Brunswick and #1,775 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Simonds: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Simonds’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Simonds is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The ring nearest Simonds is the most wooded: 90% forest fuel within 5 km against 81% 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 60
Among the 60 towns in New Brunswick, Tracadie burns fastest (0.28% a year); Simonds is with the 15 near zero.
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 holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Simonds sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 Simonds (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Simonds, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Simonds 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
93% of towns in New Brunswick have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Simonds has one too.
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 Simonds.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Simonds $0.026 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.026 per $1,000, Simonds’ earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in New Brunswick expects $0.036 a year in shaking damage; Simonds expects less, $0.026, and St. Stephen the most, $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.
Simonds sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 53% expect more shaking damage.
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 Simonds.
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 Simonds: 11% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Region 2 health region: radon tests
Simonds’ survey area reads 11% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Simonds’ area, at 11%, is below the median in New Brunswick (20%), though 1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
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 Simonds, 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Simonds’ included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Simonds
Alerts for Simonds 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Simonds are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Simonds’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simonds | Low | $0.026 | 11% | Yes |
| Rothesay 12,626 · 14 km | Low | $0.033 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint Martins 1,280 · 16 km | Low | $0.023 | 11% | Yes |
| Quispamsis 20,240 · 16 km | Low | $0.031 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint John 79,371 · 18 km | Low | $0.033 | 11% | Yes |
| Hampton 3,268 · 18 km | Low | $0.023 | 11% | Yes |
The fire record around Quispamsis is a touch heavier than Simonds’, 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 Simonds faces
What to do about the hazards Simonds 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Simonds takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Simonds, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Simonds’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’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 Simonds.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Simonds
Does Simonds flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Simonds; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Simonds at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Simonds’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Simonds’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Simonds C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Simonds?
Around Simonds, 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 Simonds?
About $0.026 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Simonds.
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).