Photo: Jée-zus · CC BY-SA 3.0Kingsey Falls faces few natural hazards: little fire nearby, low seismic risk, radon over the guideline in 0% of tested homes
Little of the land around Kingsey Falls has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.076 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Kingsey Falls a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Kingsey Falls’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Kingsey Falls: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Kingsey Falls faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Kingsey Falls: A−
Earthquake risk and radon make Kingsey Falls’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 58 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.
Few fires near Kingsey Falls: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kingsey Falls’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Kingsey Falls each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Kingsey Falls: 24% within 5 km, 22% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Kingsey Falls, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Kingsey Falls 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 Kingsey Falls
Flood studies whose area touches Kingsey Falls, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Kingsey Falls on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Kingsey Falls; 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Kingsey Falls’ 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 Kingsey Falls: $0.076 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 2.5 times the typical $0.030: Kingsey Falls’ $0.076 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Kingsey Falls expects less, $0.076, 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Kingsey Falls.
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 Kingsey Falls’ 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).
Radon runs low around Kingsey Falls: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region: radon tests
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Kingsey Falls’ area, at 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Kingsey Falls’ area, at 0%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Kingsey Falls with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
One home in Kingsey Falls can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Kingsey Falls
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kingsey Falls; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Kingsey Falls, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kingsey Falls’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingsey Falls | Low | $0.076 | 0% | None listed |
| Tingwick 1,567 · 8.5 km | Low | $0.047 | 0% | Yes |
| Danville 3,944 · 9.6 km | Low | $0.049 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Warwick 4,939 · 13 km | Low | $0.066 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Félix-de-Kingsey 1,550 · 13 km | Low | $0.071 | 0% | None listed |
| Val-des-Sources 7,303 · 14 km | Low | $0.044 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-Albert 1,744 · 17 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
Warwick burns a little more than Kingsey Falls, 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 Kingsey Falls faces
Practical steps for Kingsey Falls’ 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Kingsey Falls’ 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, Kingsey Falls 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 Kingsey Falls.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Kingsey Falls’ figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kingsey Falls
How is Kingsey Falls’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kingsey Falls’ Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Kingsey Falls at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Kingsey Falls’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Kingsey Falls?
The area’s survey found 0% of 58 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Kingsey Falls.
Does Kingsey Falls flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Kingsey Falls, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kingsey Falls?
About $0.076 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Kingsey Falls.
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).