Photo: Hayden Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Hazards in Lac-des-Écorces: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 10% of tested homes
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Lac-des-Écorces, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.086 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Lac-des-Écorces a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Lac-des-Écorces’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lac-des-Écorces: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lac-des-Écorces faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lac-des-Écorces: C
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Lac-des-Écorces with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #262 of 507 in Quebec and #2,215 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 78 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-des-Écorces: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Lac-des-Écorces’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Lac-des-Écorces burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Fire has stayed at least 16 km from Lac-des-Écorces’ homes since 1986.
22% of the land within 5 km of Lac-des-Écorces is forest fuel, close to the 20% 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
Among the 513 towns in Quebec, Mistissini burns fastest (0.31% a year); Lac-des-Écorces is with the 144 near zero.
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 holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Lac-des-Écorces sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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-des-Écorces
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lac-des-Écorces: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Lac-des-Écorces, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Lac-des-Écorces has none.
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 Lac-des-Écorces.
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 Lac-des-Écorces: $0.086 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.086 per $1,000, Lac-des-Écorces 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-des-Écorces expects less, $0.086, 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.
Lac-des-Écorces sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 27% are higher.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Lac-des-Écorces’ figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Lac-des-Écorces: 10% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Laurentides health region: radon tests
More homes than usual test high around Lac-des-Écorces: 10% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Lac-des-Écorces (10%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 1.3% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Lac-des-Écorces is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are higher.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Lac-des-Écorces only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Lac-des-Écorces
Alerts for Lac-des-Écorces 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Lac-des-Écorces are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Lac-des-Écorces’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lac-des-Écorces | Low | $0.086 | 10% | None listed |
| Mont-Laurier 14,598 · 14 km | Low | $0.083 | 10% | Yes |
| Chute-Saint-Philippe 1,154 · 19 km | Low | $0.068 | 10% | None listed |
| Ferme-Neuve 2,816 · 19 km | Low | $0.084 | 10% | None listed |
Mont-Laurier burns a little more than Lac-des-Écorces, 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 Lac-des-Écorces faces
What to do about the hazards Lac-des-Écorces 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Lac-des-Écorces’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Lac-des-Écorces.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Lac-des-Écorces’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lac-des-Écorces is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lac-des-Écorces
How is Lac-des-Écorces’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lac-des-Écorces C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Lac-des-Écorces?
In Health Canada’s survey, 10% of 78 homes tested in Lac-des-Écorces’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Lac-des-Écorces at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Lac-des-Écorces has burned since 1986, the last in 2024, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Lac-des-Écorces flood?
Nothing is listed for Lac-des-Écorces on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lac-des-Écorces?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Lac-des-Écorces’ buildings lose $0.086 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).