Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domainWildfire low, radon 8.2%: how Bedford stands on hazards
Around Bedford, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.13 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Bedford a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Bedford’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Bedford: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Bedford faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Bedford: C
Earthquake risk and radon make Bedford’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #237 of 507 in Quebec and #2,186 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Bedford: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bedford’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Bedford at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Bedford’s homes came within 14 km, never inside 5 km.
About as much forest grows next to Bedford’s homes (5.9% within 5 km) as across 25 km (6.9%).
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Bedford is zero, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec, while Mistissini reaches 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Bedford, 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.
No flood study is listed for Bedford
Flood studies whose area touches Bedford, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Bedford, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Bedford; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Bedford’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.”
Shaking is Bedford’s costliest hazard: $0.13 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.
Roughly 4.4 times the typical $0.030: Bedford’s $0.13 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Bedford’s $0.13 is close to the median in Quebec, $0.14; La Pocatière is highest at $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Bedford.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Bedford’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.2% of homes tested around Bedford are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Monteregie health region
8.2% of tested homes around Bedford were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Bedford, 8.2% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
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 Bedford, 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Bedford can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Bedford
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Bedford; 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 Bedford, 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)
How Bedford’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedford | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Armand 1,241 · 11 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Sabine 1,123 · 14 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Venise-en-Québec 2,252 · 14 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Dunham 3,632 · 16 km | Low | $0.072 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Alexandre 2,685 · 17 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Frelighsburg 1,168 · 17 km | Low | $0.059 | 8.2% | None listed |
Saint-Armand (low) has the heaviest fire record of Bedford’s neighbours, and Bedford (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bedford faces
Practical steps for Bedford’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Bedford is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Bedford’s.
- 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 Bedford.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Bedford’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bedford
Is Bedford at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Bedford’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2021) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bedford?
About $0.13 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Bedford.
How is Bedford’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Bedford’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Bedford?
The area’s survey found 8.2% of 110 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Bedford.
Does Bedford flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Bedford, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).