Photo: Yanik Crépeau · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Ferme-Neuve: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 10% of tested homes
Around Ferme-Neuve, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.084 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Ferme-Neuve grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Ferme-Neuve’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Ferme-Neuve: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Ferme-Neuve faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Ferme-Neuve grades C for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Ferme-Neuve’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #259 of 507 in Quebec and #2,211 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 78 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Ferme-Neuve: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Ferme-Neuve’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Ferme-Neuve’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 11 km from Ferme-Neuve’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest thickens with distance from Ferme-Neuve: 11% of the land within 5 km, 21% 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
Of the 513 towns in Quebec, 144 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Ferme-Neuve among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% a year.
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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Ferme-Neuve is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
No flood study is listed for Ferme-Neuve
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Ferme-Neuve: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Ferme-Neuve on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Ferme-Neuve has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Ferme-Neuve floods.
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.”
High seismic risk in Ferme-Neuve: $0.084 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 2.8 times the typical $0.030: Ferme-Neuve’s $0.084 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.084, Ferme-Neuve is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Ferme-Neuve.
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 model counts damage to Ferme-Neuve’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Ferme-Neuve are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Ferme-Neuve’s survey area reads 10% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Ferme-Neuve, 10% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.3% over 600, against a median of 8.2% in Quebec.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Ferme-Neuve, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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 survey sampled homes around Ferme-Neuve; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Laurentides health region
Weather and fire alerts for Ferme-Neuve
Alerts for Ferme-Neuve 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 Ferme-Neuve to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Ferme-Neuve’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferme-Neuve | Low | $0.084 | 10% | None listed |
| Mont-Laurier 14,598 · 18 km | Low | $0.083 | 10% | Yes |
| Lac-des-Écorces 3,005 · 19 km | Low | $0.086 | 10% | None listed |
Mont-Laurier burns a little more than Ferme-Neuve, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ferme-Neuve faces
Practical steps for Ferme-Neuve’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?
- 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. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Ferme-Neuve.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Ferme-Neuve takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Ferme-Neuve’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Ferme-Neuve’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ferme-Neuve
Is radon a problem in Ferme-Neuve?
The area’s survey found 10% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Ferme-Neuve.
How is Ferme-Neuve’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Ferme-Neuve C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Ferme-Neuve at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Ferme-Neuve’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ferme-Neuve?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Ferme-Neuve $0.084 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Ferme-Neuve flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Ferme-Neuve, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).