Photo: Félix Mathieu-Bégin · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for La Sarre: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches La Sarre: since 1986, 0.8% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.02% a year). For earthquakes La Sarre is middling, $0.019 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4.3% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives La Sarre a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about La Sarre’s hazards
For La Sarre, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What La Sarre faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
La Sarre grades A− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set La Sarre’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #5 of 507 in Quebec and #577 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 69 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.
Few fires near La Sarre: 0% within 5 km, 0.8% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where La Sarre’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.02% a year keeps La Sarre in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The closest burn since 1986 lies 6.0 km from La Sarre’s homes, none within 5 km.
The nearer ring around La Sarre is less wooded (34% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (41%).
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
La Sarre ranks 14th of the 513 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.02% a year; Mistissini leads with 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, La Sarre 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.
A flood study covers La Sarre, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches La Sarre, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching La Sarre is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2012; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarre | Gouvernement du Québec | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but La Sarre has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for La Sarre.
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.
Expected shaking damage in La Sarre: $0.019 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
La Sarre’s $0.019 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.6 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: La Sarre’s $0.019 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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.
66% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than La Sarre.
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 Sarre.
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 La Sarre: 4.3% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region
A lower share than most: 4.3% of tested homes around La Sarre, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
La Sarre’s area, at 4.3%, 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 La Sarre 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.
A low area share in La Sarre doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in La Sarre
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for La Sarre; 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 La Sarre, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around La Sarre
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Sarre | Low | $0.019 | 4.3% | Yes |
| Macamic 2,698 · 16 km | Low | $0.019 | 4.3% | None listed |
| Palmarolle 1,425 · 16 km | Low | $0.021 | 4.3% | None listed |
Macamic (low) has the heaviest fire record of La Sarre’s neighbours, and La Sarre (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what La Sarre faces
Practical steps for La Sarre’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
- 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 La Sarre.
- Wildfire counts one way. For La Sarre, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, La Sarre takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for La Sarre’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in La Sarre
Is La Sarre at risk of wildfire?
Some, but La Sarre’s low band (0.8% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
Does La Sarre flood?
The inventory lists a study touching La Sarre; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is La Sarre’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
La Sarre grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in La Sarre?
The area’s survey found 4.3% of 69 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in La Sarre.
How big is the earthquake risk in La Sarre?
Expected earthquake damage in La Sarre comes to $0.019 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).