Photo: Richard Coté · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 7.3%: how Lac-Drolet stands on hazards
Wildfire isn’t Lac-Drolet’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Lac-Drolet is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.046 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Lac-Drolet a grade of B, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Lac-Drolet’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lac-Drolet: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lac-Drolet faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lac-Drolet grades B for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Lac-Drolet 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. Only 55 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Lac-Drolet: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lac-Drolet’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Lac-Drolet burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Forest crowds in on Lac-Drolet: 74% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 61% 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
Near-zero burning puts Lac-Drolet with 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Lac-Drolet, burning rounds to zero.
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-Drolet
Flood studies whose area touches Lac-Drolet, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Lac-Drolet, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Lac-Drolet has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
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-Drolet.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Lac-Drolet: $0.046 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.
1.5 times the typical $0.030: Lac-Drolet’s $0.046 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Lac-Drolet’s $0.046 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.
Lac-Drolet sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 31% 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-Drolet’s 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).
Some radon around Lac-Drolet: 7.3% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Estrie health region: radon tests
Around Lac-Drolet, 7.3% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Lac-Drolet is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 7.3%, beside a median of 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Lac-Drolet’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Lac-Drolet 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 Lac-Drolet
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lac-Drolet; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Lac-Drolet come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Lac-Drolet
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lac-Drolet | Low | $0.046 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Saint-Ludger 1,091 · 11 km | Low | $0.041 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Nantes 1,412 · 17 km | Low | $0.040 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Lac-Mégantic 5,947 · 18 km | Low | $0.037 | 7.3% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Lac-Drolet (low), with Saint-Ludger next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lac-Drolet faces
What to do about the hazards Lac-Drolet 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
- 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-Drolet’s.
- 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-Drolet.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lac-Drolet’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lac-Drolet is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lac-Drolet
How big is the earthquake risk in Lac-Drolet?
Expected earthquake damage in Lac-Drolet comes to $0.046 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Lac-Drolet’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lac-Drolet grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Lac-Drolet at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Lac-Drolet: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Is radon a problem in Lac-Drolet?
Around Lac-Drolet, 55 survey homes were tested and 7.3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Lac-Drolet flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Lac-Drolet’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).