Photo: OgreBot · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire moderate, radon 4.7%: how Forestville stands on hazards
Fire reaches the land around Forestville now and then: 3% within 25 km since 1986 (0.08% a year), below the high band. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.087 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Forestville a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Forestville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Forestville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Forestville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Forestville grades B for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Forestville, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #72 of 507 in Quebec and #1,467 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Some fire around Forestville: 3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.4% within 5 km
Past fire around Forestville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Moderate: the land around Forestville burns at 0.08% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
There is forest near Forestville’s homes (77% within 5 km) and more of it further out (88% 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
The land around Forestville burns at 0.08% a year, the 6th highest rate of 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it 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 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with Forestville, and 2.1% sit 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 Forestville
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Forestville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Forestville, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Forestville.
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 Forestville’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.”
High seismic risk in Forestville: $0.087 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.087 per $1,000, Forestville carries roughly 2.9 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Forestville expects less, $0.087, 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: 27% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Forestville.
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 Forestville’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).
4.7% of homes tested around Forestville are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Forestville’s area 4.7%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Forestville alone, so this card uses the figure for the Cote-Nord health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Forestville has fewer high tests: 4.7%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Forestville is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% 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.
The survey sampled homes around Forestville; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Forestville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Forestville; 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 Forestville come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Forestville faces
What to do about the hazards Forestville faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- 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 Forestville’s 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, Forestville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Forestville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Forestville’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Forestville
Is radon a problem in Forestville?
In Health Canada’s survey, 4.7% of 107 homes tested in Forestville’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Forestville at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 3% of the land within 25 km of Forestville has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a moderate band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Forestville?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Forestville $0.087 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Forestville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Forestville B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Forestville flood?
Nothing is listed for Forestville on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).