Photo: Harfang · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Baie-Comeau are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 4.7% of area homes above the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Baie-Comeau: 0.5% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.079 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Baie-Comeau grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Baie-Comeau’s hazards
For Baie-Comeau, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Baie-Comeau faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Baie-Comeau grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Baie-Comeau’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #66 of 507 in Quebec and #1,455 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.
Few fires near Baie-Comeau: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.5% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Baie-Comeau’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Baie-Comeau burns at 0.01% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Baie-Comeau: 72% of the land within 5 km, 84% 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 Quebec · highest of 513
The land around Baie-Comeau burns at 0.01% a year, the 17th highest rate of 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it at 0.31%.
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.
Baie-Comeau is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
No flood study is listed for Baie-Comeau
Flood studies whose area touches Baie-Comeau, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Baie-Comeau on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Baie-Comeau is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Baie-Comeau.
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.”
High seismic risk in Baie-Comeau: $0.079 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Baie-Comeau loses $0.079, 2.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Baie-Comeau, at $0.079, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Baie-Comeau, 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Baie-Comeau 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 about average around Baie-Comeau: 4.7% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Baie-Comeau reads 4.7%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Baie-Comeau alone, so this card uses the figure for the Cote-Nord health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Baie-Comeau’s area, at 4.7%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Baie-Comeau; 63% 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, Baie-Comeau’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Baie-Comeau
Alerts for Baie-Comeau 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 Baie-Comeau 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)
Hazards in the places around Baie-Comeau
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baie-Comeau | Low | $0.079 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Pointe-Lebel 1,800 · 8.8 km | Low | $0.11 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Chute-aux-Outardes 1,406 · 17 km | Moderate | $0.078 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Pointe-aux-Outardes 1,447 · 17 km | Moderate | $0.10 | 4.7% | None listed |
Fire is heaviest around Chute-aux-Outardes (moderate), against low for Baie-Comeau.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Baie-Comeau faces
What to do about the hazards Baie-Comeau 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
- 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 Baie-Comeau.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Baie-Comeau, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Baie-Comeau’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 Baie-Comeau is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Baie-Comeau
How big is the earthquake risk in Baie-Comeau?
Expected earthquake damage in Baie-Comeau comes to $0.079 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Baie-Comeau’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Baie-Comeau grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Baie-Comeau flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Baie-Comeau’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Baie-Comeau?
Around Baie-Comeau, 107 survey homes were tested and 4.7% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Baie-Comeau at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.5% of the land around Baie-Comeau since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the 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).