Photo: WabbitWanderer from London, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Chapleau: it beats 95% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Chapleau: 5.4% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.14% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.007 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is about average around Chapleau: 5.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Chapleau grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Chapleau’s hazards
For Chapleau, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Chapleau faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Chapleau grades A for hazard risk
For Chapleau, 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.
Fire reaches the land around Chapleau: 0% within 5 km, 5.4% within 25 km
Past fire around Chapleau’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Chapleau is 0.14%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 11 km from Chapleau’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest thickens with distance from Chapleau: 69% of the land within 5 km, 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 Ontario · highest of 872
The land around Chapleau burns at 0.14% a year, the 3rd highest rate of 872 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops it at 0.16%.
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.
Moderate puts Chapleau above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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 Chapleau
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Chapleau: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Chapleau, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Chapleau has no study, where 69% of towns in Ontario have one against 58% nationally.
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 Chapleau.
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.”
Little shaking expected in Chapleau: $0.007 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Chapleau it is only $0.007, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year in shaking damage; Chapleau expects less, $0.007, and Alexandria the most, $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Chapleau is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% of the 2,611 towns 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Chapleau.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Chapleau: 5.2% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Chapleau’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 5.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Chapleau than in most towns in Ontario: 5.2% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Chapleau’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit higher.
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, Chapleau’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Sudbury and District Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Chapleau
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Chapleau; 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. |
For fires near Chapleau, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Chapleau faces
Practical steps for Chapleau’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Chapleau.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Chapleau’s 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 Chapleau.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Chapleau is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Chapleau
Is Chapleau at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Chapleau’s moderate band (5.4% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1999) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Chapleau?
The area’s survey found 5.2% of 97 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Chapleau.
How big is the earthquake risk in Chapleau?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Chapleau $0.007 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Chapleau flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Chapleau, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Chapleau’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Chapleau A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).