Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 4.0A quiet place for hazards: low wildfire, little earthquake risk, and 2.8% of tested homes over the radon guideline in Girardville’s area
Wildfire is rare near Girardville: 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.009% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.061 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Girardville grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Girardville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Girardville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Girardville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Girardville grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Girardville with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. 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.
Wildfire is rare near Girardville: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Girardville’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Girardville fire takes 0.009% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The 5 km ring around Girardville’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 5.4 km out.
Forest thickens with distance from Girardville: 54% of the land within 5 km, 65% 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 514
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Girardville, at 0.009%, ranks 21st of 514.
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 Girardville 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Girardville
Flood studies whose area touches Girardville, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Girardville on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Girardville.
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 Girardville’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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Girardville $0.061 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.
At $0.061 per $1,000, Girardville carries roughly 2 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; Girardville expects less, $0.061, 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: 29% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Girardville.
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 Girardville’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 low around Girardville: 2.8% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A lower share than most: 2.8% of tested homes around Girardville, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Below the typical town in Quebec (8.2%) at 2.8%, the area around Girardville still had 1.4% of tests over 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Girardville 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Girardville only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean health region
Weather and fire alerts for Girardville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Girardville; 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 Girardville come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Girardville’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Girardville (low); Albanel comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Girardville faces
What to do about the hazards Girardville 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?
- 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. 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 Girardville floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Girardville’s figure is its subdivision’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 Girardville sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Girardville’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Girardville
How is Girardville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Girardville’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Girardville?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2.8% of 72 homes tested in Girardville’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Girardville?
About $0.061 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Girardville.
Is Girardville at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.3% of the land within 25 km of Girardville has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Girardville flood?
Nothing is listed for Girardville 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).