Photo: Michaël Dumais · Public domainLac-Bouchette faces few natural hazards: little fire nearby, low seismic risk, radon over the guideline in 2.8% of tested homes
Burn scars are few around Lac-Bouchette, with 0.3% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.007% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.087 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Lac-Bouchette a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Lac-Bouchette’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lac-Bouchette: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lac-Bouchette faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lac-Bouchette grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Lac-Bouchette with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 72 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.
Wildfire is rare near Lac-Bouchette: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lac-Bouchette’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.007% of the land near Lac-Bouchette burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Fire has stayed at least 14 km from Lac-Bouchette’s homes since 1986.
Within 5 km of Lac-Bouchette, 79% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 87%.
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
In the top quarter in Quebec: Lac-Bouchette ranks 23rd of 514 at 0.007% a year, with Mistissini first 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Lac-Bouchette 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 Lac-Bouchette
Flood studies whose area touches Lac-Bouchette, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Lac-Bouchette 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 Lac-Bouchette.
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 Lac-Bouchette.
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.”
Shaking is Lac-Bouchette’s costliest hazard: $0.087 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.
At $0.087 per $1,000, Lac-Bouchette carries roughly 2.9 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; Lac-Bouchette expects less, $0.087, 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: 27% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Lac-Bouchette.
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 Lac-Bouchette’s 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 Lac-Bouchette: 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.
Lac-Bouchette’s area, at 2.8%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Lac-Bouchette (2.8%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), yet 1.4% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Lac-Bouchette, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Lac-Bouchette as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean health region, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Lac-Bouchette
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lac-Bouchette; 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 Lac-Bouchette, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Lac-Bouchette faces
What to do about the hazards Lac-Bouchette 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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Lac-Bouchette takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lac-Bouchette’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Lac-Bouchette’s.
- 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 Lac-Bouchette.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lac-Bouchette
Is Lac-Bouchette at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.3% of the land within 25 km of Lac-Bouchette has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Lac-Bouchette’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lac-Bouchette grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Lac-Bouchette?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2.8% of 72 homes tested in Lac-Bouchette’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lac-Bouchette?
About $0.087 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Lac-Bouchette.
Does Lac-Bouchette flood?
Nothing is listed for Lac-Bouchette 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).