Photo: François Fournier · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Beloeil: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Burn scars are few around Beloeil, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.20 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Beloeil as elsewhere, 8.2% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Beloeil grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Beloeil’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Beloeil: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Beloeil faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Beloeil: C−
The grade weighs Beloeil’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: #367 of 507 in Quebec and #2,340 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.
Little of the land around Beloeil has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Beloeil’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Beloeil at 0.002% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Beloeil’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 5.6 km away.
Little near Beloeil’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.5% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.3% 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
At 0.002% a year, Beloeil is near the top in Quebec: 35th of 513, behind Mistissini (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.
Some fire is mapped around Beloeil, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 7.5% rank 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.
A flood study covers Beloeil, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Beloeil, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Beloeil, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1979, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sorel-Chambly | Gouvernement du Québec | 1979 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Beloeil has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Beloeil.
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 Beloeil: $0.20 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.
At $0.20 per $1,000, Beloeil carries roughly 6.6 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Beloeil’s $0.20 tops the median in Quebec, $0.14, though 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.
12% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Beloeil, 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Beloeil’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).
Radon about average around Beloeil: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Monteregie health region
Beloeil’s area, at 8.2%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Beloeil, 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Beloeil’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Beloeil; 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 Beloeil
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Beloeil; 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 Beloeil, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Beloeil
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beloeil | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Mont-Saint-Hilaire 19,447 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| McMasterville 6,114 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil 2,999 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Otterburn Park 9,460 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu 1,867 · 7.6 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Basile-le-Grand 17,146 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Beloeil (low); McMasterville comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Beloeil faces
What to do about the hazards Beloeil 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.
- 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Beloeil.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Beloeil takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Beloeil’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Beloeil’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Beloeil
Is Beloeil at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Beloeil has burned since 1986, the last in 2024, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Beloeil?
Expected earthquake damage in Beloeil comes to $0.20 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Beloeil flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Beloeil; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Beloeil?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.2% of 110 homes tested in Beloeil’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Beloeil’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Beloeil’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).