Photo: NordSpace · CC BY-SA 4.0A quiet place for hazards: low wildfire, little earthquake risk, and 4% of tested homes over the radon guideline in St. Lawrence’s area
Wildfire is rare near St. Lawrence: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.006% a year. Seismic risk in St. Lawrence sits near the middle: $0.023 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. St. Lawrence grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about St. Lawrence’s hazards
For St. Lawrence, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What St. Lawrence faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
St. Lawrence grades A− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set St. Lawrence’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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 St. Lawrence: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where St. Lawrence’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.006% of the land a year around St. Lawrence, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
About as much forest grows next to St. Lawrence’s homes (37% within 5 km) as across 25 km (32%).
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 Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 33
In the lower half in Newfoundland and Labrador: St. Lawrence at 0.006% a year, 23rd of 33, far from Labrador City’s 0.43%.
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.
Some fire is mapped around St. Lawrence, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
No flood study is listed for St. Lawrence
Flood studies whose area touches St. Lawrence, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, St. Lawrence has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Newfoundland and Labrador, 59% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches St. Lawrence.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of St. Lawrence’s homes are at risk.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in St. Lawrence $0.023 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.
With $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, St. Lawrence is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
No town in Newfoundland and Labrador expects more earthquake damage than St. Lawrence ($0.023); the typical one expects $0.011.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
St. Lawrence sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 54% 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).
For St. Lawrence 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).
Little radon around St. Lawrence: 4% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority: radon tests
At 4% over the guideline, the area around St. Lawrence is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around St. Lawrence, 4% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts St. Lawrence with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in St. Lawrence, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in St. Lawrence
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for St. Lawrence; 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 St. Lawrence come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what St. Lawrence faces
Practical steps for St. Lawrence’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 St. Lawrence.
- 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 St. Lawrence.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, St. Lawrence’s included.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, St. Lawrence takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in St. Lawrence
Does St. Lawrence flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for St. Lawrence, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is St. Lawrence’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
St. Lawrence grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in St. Lawrence?
Expected earthquake damage in St. Lawrence comes to $0.023 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is St. Lawrence at risk of wildfire?
Some, but St. Lawrence’s low band (0.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1986) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in St. Lawrence?
The area’s survey found 4% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in St. Lawrence.
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).