Photo: Froliking on the Iceshield · CC BY 2.0Blanc-Sablon faces fewer hazards than 96% of Canadian towns
Around Blanc-Sablon, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.007 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Blanc-Sablon is ordinary for Canada: 4.7% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Blanc-Sablon grades A+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Blanc-Sablon’s hazards
For Blanc-Sablon, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Blanc-Sablon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Blanc-Sablon grades A+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Blanc-Sablon’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Blanc-Sablon: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Blanc-Sablon’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Blanc-Sablon burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Fire has stayed at least 13 km from Blanc-Sablon’s homes since 1986.
Homes in Blanc-Sablon sit on open or built-up ground (3.9% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 20%.
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 514
Among the 514 towns in Quebec, Mistissini burns fastest (0.31% a year); Blanc-Sablon is with the 145 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 Blanc-Sablon, 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Blanc-Sablon
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Blanc-Sablon: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Blanc-Sablon has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Blanc-Sablon has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Blanc-Sablon to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Low seismic risk in Blanc-Sablon: $0.007 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Blanc-Sablon’s $0.007 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Blanc-Sablon’s $0.007 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under La Pocatière’s $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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 88% of its 2,611 towns sit above Blanc-Sablon.
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).
For Blanc-Sablon the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
4.7% of homes tested around Blanc-Sablon are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Cote-Nord health region
Blanc-Sablon’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 4.7% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Quebec is 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; around Blanc-Sablon it is 4.7%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Blanc-Sablon, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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, Blanc-Sablon’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Blanc-Sablon
Alerts for Blanc-Sablon 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 Blanc-Sablon 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)
Get ready for what Blanc-Sablon faces
What to do about the hazards Blanc-Sablon 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. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Blanc-Sablon floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Blanc-Sablon’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Blanc-Sablon, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Blanc-Sablon sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Blanc-Sablon
Does Blanc-Sablon flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Blanc-Sablon’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Blanc-Sablon?
Around Blanc-Sablon, 107 survey homes were tested and 4.7% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Blanc-Sablon?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Blanc-Sablon’s buildings lose $0.007 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Blanc-Sablon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Blanc-Sablon’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Blanc-Sablon at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Blanc-Sablon since 1986 (last in 2015); 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).