Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Seguin faces fewer hazards than 90% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Seguin: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.020 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Seguin, near the typical $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.9% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Seguin a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Seguin’s hazards
For Seguin, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Seguin faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Seguin grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Seguin’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #101 of 866 in Ontario and #411 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Little of the land around Seguin has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Seguin’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Seguin in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Seguin’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 9.9 km out.
Forest thickens with distance from Seguin: 20% of the land within 5 km, 32% 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
Among the 871 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Seguin is with the 638 near zero.
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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Seguin, burning rounds to zero.
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 Seguin
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Seguin: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Seguin on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Seguin is not yet one of them.
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 Seguin’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.”
Expected shaking damage in Seguin: $0.020 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Seguin, $0.020 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year in shaking damage; Seguin expects less, $0.020, 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 64% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Seguin.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Seguin is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Seguin: 1.9% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: radon tests
Fewer homes than usual test high around Seguin: 1.9% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Seguin’s area, at 1.9%, is below the median in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Seguin 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.
Whatever Seguin’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Seguin
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Seguin; 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 Seguin, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Seguin’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seguin | Low | $0.020 | 1.9% | None listed |
| McKellar 1,534 · 16 km | Low | $0.025 | 1.9% | None listed |
| Parry Sound 7,584 · 18 km | Low | $0.016 | 1.9% | None listed |
Nowhere around Seguin burns more: McKellar, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Seguin faces
Practical steps for Seguin’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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Seguin.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Seguin’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Seguin is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Seguin, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Seguin
Is radon a problem in Seguin?
1.9% of the 103 homes Health Canada tested around Seguin topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Seguin’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Seguin A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Seguin at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Seguin’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 1999), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Seguin?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Seguin $0.020 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Seguin flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Seguin (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).