Photo: Wscaswell · CC BY-SA 3.0Brigham is on Canada’s flood inventory: 3 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Brigham: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.099 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Brigham is ordinary for Canada: 8.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Brigham grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Brigham’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Brigham: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Brigham faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Brigham: C+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Brigham with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Brigham has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Brigham’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Brigham’s 0.000% is in the low band.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Brigham’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 13 km away.
About as much forest grows next to Brigham’s homes (13% within 5 km) as across 25 km (9.2%).
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); Brigham 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Brigham is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
Flooding around Brigham is mapped in 3 studies, the newest by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Brigham, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec and others have studied flooding in areas that include Brigham: 3 studies, the latest from 2006.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brigham | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
| Brigham-Adamsville | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
| Bromont-Adamsville | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Brigham among them, below the 58% across Canada.
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 Brigham’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 Brigham’s costliest hazard: $0.099 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Brigham loses $0.099, 3.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Brigham expects less, $0.099, 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Brigham, 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 Brigham’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 Brigham: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Brigham reads 8.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Monteregie health region as a whole, not for Brigham alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Brigham, 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.
Brigham is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Brigham 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 Brigham
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Brigham; 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 Brigham, 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)
Hazards in the places around Brigham
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brigham | Low | $0.099 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Cowansville 17,269 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.089 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby 3,545 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.10 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Dunham 3,632 · 11 km | Low | $0.072 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Bromont 12,413 · 12 km | Low | $0.067 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Farnham 11,315 · 14 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Ange-Gardien 3,100 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Brigham has the most fire on record (low); Cowansville follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Brigham faces
What to do about the hazards Brigham 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Brigham’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Brigham.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Brigham’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Brigham takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Brigham
Is Brigham at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Brigham since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Brigham flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Brigham; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Brigham?
Around Brigham, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Brigham?
Expected earthquake damage in Brigham comes to $0.099 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Brigham’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Brigham grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).