Photo: Marilyne Lesage · CC BY-SA 3.0Desbiens’ hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 2.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Desbiens: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.16 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Desbiens grades B− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Desbiens’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Desbiens: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Desbiens faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Desbiens: B−
Two inputs always count for Desbiens, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 72 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Desbiens: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Desbiens’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.002% burned a year, Desbiens is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Within 5 km of Desbiens, 50% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 60%.
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
Desbiens ranks 35th of the 514 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.002% a year; Mistissini leads with 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Desbiens burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
No flood study is listed for Desbiens
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Desbiens: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Desbiens; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Desbiens; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Desbiens.
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 Desbiens $0.16 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.16 per $1,000, Desbiens carries roughly 5.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Desbiens, at $0.16, is right beside it, and La Pocatière tops the list 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.
Desbiens sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 15% are higher.
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 Desbiens’ 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 runs low around Desbiens: 2.8% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Desbiens’ area, at 2.8%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean health region, Desbiens included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Desbiens (2.8%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), yet 1.4% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Desbiens; 63% sit 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Desbiens as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Desbiens
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Desbiens; 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 Desbiens come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Desbiens
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desbiens | Low | $0.16 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Métabetchouan--Lac-à-la-Croix 4,230 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.18 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Chambord 1,800 · 7.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Gédéon 2,349 · 17 km | Low | $0.22 | 2.8% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Chambord (low), still no more than Desbiens (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Desbiens faces
What to do about the hazards Desbiens 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. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Desbiens’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Desbiens.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Desbiens’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Desbiens takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Desbiens
Is radon a problem in Desbiens?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2.8% of 72 homes tested in Desbiens’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Desbiens?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Desbiens’ buildings lose $0.16 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Desbiens at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Desbiens has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Desbiens flood?
Nothing is listed for Desbiens on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
How is Desbiens’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Desbiens grades B− 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).