Photo: Padraic · CC BY-SA 2.0Laurentian Valley is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by MRC de Pontiac
Wildfire is rare near Laurentian Valley: 1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.04% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.11 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Laurentian Valley is ordinary for Canada: 8% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Laurentian Valley a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Laurentian Valley’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Laurentian Valley: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Laurentian Valley faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Laurentian Valley: C+
Earthquake risk and radon make Laurentian Valley’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #814 of 866 in Ontario and #2,034 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Laurentian Valley: 0% within 5 km, 1% within 25 km
Past fire around Laurentian Valley’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.04% a year keeps Laurentian Valley in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Laurentian Valley’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 6.1 km out.
About as much forest grows next to Laurentian Valley’s homes (28% within 5 km) as across 25 km (31%).
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
Laurentian Valley ranks 12th of the 871 towns in Ontario for burn rate, at 0.04% a year; Sioux Lookout leads with 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.
Some fire is mapped around Laurentian Valley, 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.
Laurentian Valley is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by MRC de Pontiac
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Laurentian Valley: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Laurentian Valley, MRC de Pontiac’s from 2006, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chenal-du-Grand-Calumet-Rocher-Fendu | MRC de Pontiac | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Laurentian Valley with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
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 Laurentian Valley.
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.
Shaking is Laurentian Valley’s costliest hazard: $0.11 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Laurentian Valley’s $0.11 is about 3.7 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
Above the middle in Ontario: Laurentian Valley’s $0.11 against a median of $0.043, with Alexandria highest 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.
25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Laurentian Valley, 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).
The model counts damage to Laurentian Valley’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Laurentian Valley: 8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Renfrew County and District Health Unit: radon tests
8% of tested homes around Laurentian Valley were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Laurentian Valley’s area, at 8%, is above the median in Ontario (4%), and 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.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Laurentian Valley, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
One home in Laurentian Valley can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Laurentian Valley
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Laurentian Valley; 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 Laurentian Valley, 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)
Hazards in the places around Laurentian Valley
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laurentian Valley | Low | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| Pembroke 15,479 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.10 | 8% | None listed |
| Petawawa 19,606 · 13 km | Moderate | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| L'Isle-aux-Allumettes 1,413 · 13 km | Low | $0.10 | 13% | Yes |
Fire is heaviest around Petawawa (moderate), against low for Laurentian Valley.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Laurentian Valley faces
Practical steps for Laurentian Valley’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Laurentian Valley’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Laurentian Valley’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Laurentian Valley without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Laurentian Valley until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Laurentian Valley
Is radon a problem in Laurentian Valley?
8% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Laurentian Valley topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Laurentian Valley flood?
A flood study covers Laurentian Valley on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Laurentian Valley?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Laurentian Valley $0.11 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Laurentian Valley’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Laurentian Valley C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Laurentian Valley at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Laurentian Valley’s band is low, with 1% 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).