Photo: Gaétan Veillette · CC BY-SA 4.0Bécancour is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Little of the land around Bécancour has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.13 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Bécancour a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Bécancour’s hazards
For Bécancour, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bécancour faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bécancour grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Bécancour’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #34 of 507 in Quebec and #1,071 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 58 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Bécancour has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Bécancour’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.002% of the land a year, Bécancour’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 8.1 km from Bécancour’s homes, none within 5 km.
There is forest near Bécancour’s homes (15% within 5 km) and more of it further out (22% 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
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Bécancour, at 0.002%, ranks 35th of 513.
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; Bécancour 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.
2 flood studies cover Bécancour, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Bécancour: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The newest of 2 studies covering Bécancour is Gouvernement du Québec’s, from 1996; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
| Bécancour | Gouvernement du Québec | 1983 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Bécancour has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 2 studies touching Bécancour are spread over time, from the 1980s to the 1990s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Bécancour.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Bécancour.
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.
High seismic risk in Bécancour: $0.13 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 4.2 times the typical $0.030: Bécancour’s $0.13 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Bécancour’s $0.13 against $0.14; La Pocatière reaches $0.48.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Bécancour sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 23% are higher.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Bécancour.
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 Bécancour: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 0% over the guideline, the area around Bécancour is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Bécancour has fewer high tests: 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Bécancour 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Bécancour’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Where to get warnings in Bécancour
Alerts for Bécancour 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. |
Evacuation orders for Bécancour come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Bécancour’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bécancour | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Trois-Rivières 149,934 · 12 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Nicolet 8,737 · 14 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Champlain 1,957 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Maurice 3,804 · 18 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Wenceslas 1,202 · 19 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Trois-Rivières (low), still no more than Bécancour (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bécancour faces
Practical steps for Bécancour’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Bécancour’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Bécancour, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Bécancour.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Bécancour is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bécancour
Is Bécancour at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Bécancour’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Bécancour?
The area’s survey found 0% of 58 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Bécancour.
Does Bécancour flood?
There is flood mapping for Bécancour on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Bécancour’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bécancour B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bécancour?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Bécancour’s buildings lose $0.13 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).