Photo: Miguel Á. Sancha M. · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Kazabazua comes out behind 88% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Kazabazua, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.001% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Kazabazua grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Kazabazua’s hazards
For Kazabazua, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kazabazua faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kazabazua grades D for hazard risk
For Kazabazua, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 63 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Kazabazua: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Kazabazua’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Kazabazua at 0.001% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
More forest grows near Kazabazua’s homes (46% within 5 km) than across 25 km (27%).
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
Kazabazua sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 514 towns, at 0.001% a year, well behind Mistissini (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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Kazabazua among them, though its rate is above zero; 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 Kazabazua
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Kazabazua: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Kazabazua, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Kazabazua.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Kazabazua to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Kazabazua: $0.12 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Kazabazua’s $0.12 is about 4 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Kazabazua ($0.12) matches the middle in Quebec ($0.14), far from La Pocatière’s $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 23% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Kazabazua.
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).
For Kazabazua the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
13% of homes tested around Kazabazua are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Outaouais health region: radon tests
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Kazabazua’s area, at 13%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Kazabazua, 13% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 4.8% 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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Kazabazua, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Kazabazua’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Kazabazua
Alerts for Kazabazua 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. |
Evacuation orders for Kazabazua come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kazabazua’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kazabazua | Low | $0.12 | 13% | None listed |
| Gracefield 2,544 · 12 km | Low | $0.099 | 13% | Yes |
Kazabazua’s low band tops its neighbours; Gracefield is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Kazabazua faces
Practical steps for Kazabazua’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.
- 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. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Kazabazua’s included.
- 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 Kazabazua.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Kazabazua takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Kazabazua.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kazabazua
Is Kazabazua at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Kazabazua’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Kazabazua flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Kazabazua (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Kazabazua’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kazabazua grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Kazabazua?
13% of the 63 homes Health Canada tested around Kazabazua topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kazabazua?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Kazabazua $0.12 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).