Photo: Ptaff · CC0A flood study covers Brébeuf: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Brébeuf: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.074 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. More homes than usual carry radon here, 10% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Brébeuf grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Brébeuf’s hazards
For Brébeuf, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Brébeuf faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Brébeuf grades C for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Brébeuf’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Brébeuf has burned: 0.2% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Brébeuf’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.001% of the land a year, Brébeuf’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Brébeuf is less wooded (16% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (28%).
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
Brébeuf burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 514 towns in Quebec; the leader, 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Brébeuf reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Brébeuf (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Brébeuf: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Brébeuf is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2004; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brébeuf | Gouvernement du Québec | 2004 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Brébeuf has one.
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 Brébeuf’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Shaking is Brébeuf’s costliest hazard: $0.074 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Brébeuf’s $0.074 is about 2.5 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Brébeuf expects less, $0.074, and La Pocatière the most, $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 28% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Brébeuf.
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 Brébeuf 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).
10% of homes tested around Brébeuf 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 Laurentides health region
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Brébeuf’s area, at 10%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Brébeuf than in most towns in Quebec: 10% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 1.3% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Brébeuf sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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.
Neighbouring homes in Brébeuf can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Brébeuf
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Brébeuf; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Brébeuf come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Brébeuf’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brébeuf | Low | $0.074 | 10% | Yes |
| La Conception 1,685 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.070 | 10% | Yes |
| Mont-Tremblant 11,879 · 8.7 km | Low | $0.065 | 10% | Yes |
| Amherst 1,703 · 11 km | Low | $0.077 | 10% | Yes |
| Saint-Faustin--Lac-Carré 4,009 · 17 km | Low | $0.064 | 10% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is La Conception (low), still no more than Brébeuf (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Brébeuf faces
Practical steps for Brébeuf’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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 Brébeuf.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Brébeuf’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Brébeuf.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Brébeuf takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Brébeuf
Is Brébeuf at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Brébeuf’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Brébeuf?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Brébeuf $0.074 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Brébeuf flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Brébeuf; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Brébeuf?
10% of the 78 homes Health Canada tested around Brébeuf topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Brébeuf’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Brébeuf’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).