Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Hazard risk in St. George is higher than in 87% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches St. George: since 1986, 0.5% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.01% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 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 St. George a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about St. George’s hazards
For St. George, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What St. George faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in St. George: D
For St. George, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Little of the land around St. George has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.5% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where St. George’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.01% of the land a year around St. George, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to St. George’s homes came within 8.5 km, never inside 5 km.
The nearer ring around St. George is less wooded (82% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (89%).
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
St. George burns at 0.01% a year, 18th of 61 towns in New Brunswick; the leader, Tracadie, reaches 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, St. George 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.
A flood study covers St. George, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches St. George, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB studied flooding in an area that includes St. George (2020); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| 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%; St. George 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 St. George.
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 St. George $0.15 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.
St. George’s $0.15 is about 4.9 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.15, St. George is above the typical town in New Brunswick ($0.036); St. Stephen has the most at $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 St. George, 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 St. George.
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 St. George: 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. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Region 2 health region
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; St. George’s area has 11%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
St. George’s 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 St. George, 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.
Whatever St. George’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in St. George
Alerts for St. George 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 St. George 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 St. George
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. George | Low | $0.15 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint George 2,675 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.11 | 11% | Yes |
| Pennfield 2,309 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.080 | 11% | Yes |
| Saint Andrews 2,167 · 19 km | Low | $0.17 | 11% | Yes |
Saint Andrews burns a little more than St. George, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what St. George faces
Practical steps for St. George’s 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for St. George’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for St. George is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 St. George.
- Wildfire counts one way. For St. George, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in St. George
Is radon a problem in St. George?
11% of the 101 homes Health Canada tested around St. George topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in St. George?
Expected earthquake damage in St. George comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does St. George flood?
There is flood mapping for St. George on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is St. George’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
St. George’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is St. George at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: St. George’s band is low, with 0.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).