Photo: Municipalitelapeche · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers La Pêche: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Little of the land around La Pêche has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.090 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. La Pêche grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about La Pêche’s hazards
For La Pêche, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What La Pêche faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in La Pêche: C−
For La Pêche, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #421 of 507 in Quebec and #2,411 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 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.
Little of the land around La Pêche has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around La Pêche’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of La Pêche burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
24% of the land within 5 km of La Pêche is forest fuel, close to the 23% 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
At 0.001% a year, La Pêche ranks 136th of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini leads 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; La Pêche stays low, with 92%.
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.
La Pêche is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for La Pêche: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Gouvernement du Québec studied flooding in an area that includes La Pêche (1978); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmers-Hull | Gouvernement du Québec | 1978 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; La Pêche is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for La Pêche.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Shaking is La Pêche’s costliest hazard: $0.090 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 3 times the typical $0.030: La Pêche’s $0.090 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); La Pêche, at $0.090, is below the median of $0.14.
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 La Pêche.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for La Pêche.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in La Pêche: 13% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
La Pêche’s area, at 13%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around La Pêche than in most towns in Quebec: 13% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 4.8% over 600.
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 La Pêche, 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, La Pêche’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Outaouais health region
Where to get warnings in La Pêche
Alerts for La Pêche 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 La Pêche 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)
Hazards in the places around La Pêche
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Nowhere around La Pêche burns more: Low, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what La Pêche faces
Practical steps for La Pêche’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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, La Pêche’s included.
- 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 La Pêche.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for La Pêche.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for La Pêche is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in La Pêche
How is La Pêche’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
La Pêche grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does La Pêche flood?
There is flood mapping for La Pêche on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in La Pêche?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in La Pêche $0.090 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in La Pêche?
The area’s survey found 13% of 63 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in La Pêche.
Is La Pêche at risk of wildfire?
Some, but La Pêche’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
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).