Photo: Noppen, Luc, 1949 · CC BY-SA 4.0Cap-Saint-Ignace faces more hazards than 94% of Canadian towns
Around Cap-Saint-Ignace, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.21 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Cap-Saint-Ignace grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Cap-Saint-Ignace’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cap-Saint-Ignace: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cap-Saint-Ignace faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cap-Saint-Ignace: D
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Cap-Saint-Ignace with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #499 of 507 in Quebec and #2,524 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Cap-Saint-Ignace: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Cap-Saint-Ignace’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Cap-Saint-Ignace burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
There is forest near Cap-Saint-Ignace’s homes (31% within 5 km) and more of it further out (57% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Cap-Saint-Ignace, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list at 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%; Cap-Saint-Ignace, 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Cap-Saint-Ignace
Flood studies whose area touches Cap-Saint-Ignace, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Cap-Saint-Ignace on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Cap-Saint-Ignace 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 studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Cap-Saint-Ignace.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Cap-Saint-Ignace $0.21 per $1,000 a year
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; Cap-Saint-Ignace loses $0.21, 7.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Cap-Saint-Ignace’s $0.21 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière 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.
Only 7.7% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Cap-Saint-Ignace.
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).
The loss is to Cap-Saint-Ignace’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Cap-Saint-Ignace: 13% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region: radon tests
At 13% over the guideline, the area around Cap-Saint-Ignace beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Cap-Saint-Ignace’s area, at 13%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 0.6% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Cap-Saint-Ignace is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are higher.
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 Cap-Saint-Ignace 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 Cap-Saint-Ignace
Alerts for Cap-Saint-Ignace 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Cap-Saint-Ignace to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Cap-Saint-Ignace’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Montmagny (low) has the heaviest fire record of Cap-Saint-Ignace’s neighbours, and Cap-Saint-Ignace (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cap-Saint-Ignace faces
What to do about the hazards Cap-Saint-Ignace 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Cap-Saint-Ignace’s.
- 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 Cap-Saint-Ignace sits in.
- 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 Cap-Saint-Ignace floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Cap-Saint-Ignace’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 Cap-Saint-Ignace
Is Cap-Saint-Ignace at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Cap-Saint-Ignace’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Cap-Saint-Ignace flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Cap-Saint-Ignace’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Cap-Saint-Ignace’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cap-Saint-Ignace grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Cap-Saint-Ignace?
Around Cap-Saint-Ignace, 175 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cap-Saint-Ignace?
Expected earthquake damage in Cap-Saint-Ignace comes to $0.21 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).