Photo: Qui1che · CC BY-SA 3.0Wildfire low, radon 8%: how Greater Madawaska stands on hazards
Around Greater Madawaska, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.067 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Greater Madawaska a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Greater Madawaska’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Greater Madawaska: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Greater Madawaska faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Greater Madawaska grades C+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Greater Madawaska, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #670 of 866 in Ontario and #1,780 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Greater Madawaska: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Greater Madawaska’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Greater Madawaska’s 0.001% is in the low band.
Nothing inside 5 km of Greater Madawaska’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 9.2 km off.
Forest fuel is denser close to Greater Madawaska (68% within 5 km) than further out (40% 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 871
In the top quarter in Ontario: Greater Madawaska ranks 83rd of 871 at 0.001% a year, with Sioux Lookout first 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Greater Madawaska stays low, with 92%.
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 Greater Madawaska
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Greater Madawaska: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Greater Madawaska has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Greater Madawaska.
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 Greater Madawaska.
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.”
Shaking is Greater Madawaska’s costliest hazard: $0.067 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Greater Madawaska loses $0.067, 2.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.067, Greater Madawaska is above the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria has the most at $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 29% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Greater Madawaska.
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).
The loss is to Greater Madawaska’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Greater Madawaska: 8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Renfrew County and District Health Unit
Greater Madawaska’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Greater Madawaska, 8% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Greater Madawaska is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Greater Madawaska can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Greater Madawaska
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Greater Madawaska; 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 Greater Madawaska, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Greater Madawaska faces
What to do about the hazards Greater Madawaska 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Greater Madawaska’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Greater Madawaska 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 Greater Madawaska.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Greater Madawaska’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Greater Madawaska
How big is the earthquake risk in Greater Madawaska?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Greater Madawaska’s buildings lose $0.067 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Greater Madawaska’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Greater Madawaska’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Greater Madawaska at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Greater Madawaska since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Greater Madawaska flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Greater Madawaska’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Greater Madawaska?
Around Greater Madawaska, 100 survey homes were tested and 8% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).