Photo: mark.watmough from Toronto, Canada · CC BY 2.0Madoc’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 12% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire isn’t Madoc’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk in Madoc sits near the middle: $0.035 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Madoc a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Madoc’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Madoc: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Madoc faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Madoc: C
Earthquake risk and radon make Madoc’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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 Madoc: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Madoc’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Madoc each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Madoc’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 25 km away.
There is forest near Madoc’s homes (8.3% within 5 km) and more of it further out (15% 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
Little or nothing burns around Madoc in a typical year; 639 of the 872 towns in Ontario share that, and Sioux Lookout leads 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Madoc, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Madoc
Flood studies whose area touches Madoc, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Madoc 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 Madoc.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Madoc to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Madoc: $0.035 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Madoc’s $0.035 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.2 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Madoc runs at $0.035 a year, near the $0.043 of the typical town in Ontario; Alexandria has $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.
Madoc sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 46% 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).
The model counts damage to Madoc’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).
12% of homes tested around Madoc are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Madoc’s area has 12%. Madoc doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Madoc (12%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 2% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Madoc, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
The survey sampled homes around Madoc; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Madoc
Alerts for Madoc 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Madoc are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Madoc’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madoc | Low | $0.035 | 12% | None listed |
| Centre Hastings 5,170 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.034 | 12% | None listed |
| Tweed 6,504 · 14 km | Low | $0.038 | 12% | None listed |
| Marmora 4,761 · 19 km | Low | $0.033 | 12% | Yes |
Tweed burns a little more than Madoc, 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 Madoc faces
Practical steps for Madoc’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. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Madoc floods.
- 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 Madoc’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Madoc’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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Madoc sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Madoc
How is Madoc’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Madoc C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Madoc at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Madoc’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 1998), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Madoc flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Madoc (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Madoc?
Expected earthquake damage in Madoc comes to $0.035 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Madoc?
12% of the 99 homes Health Canada tested around Madoc topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).