Photo: Laval_City_Hall.JPG : Jean-Philippe Boulet derivative work: MTLskyline · CC BY 3.0A flood study covers Laval: 2 on the national inventory, the newest from Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal
Little of the land around Laval has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.21 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 12% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical).
What stands out about Laval’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Laval: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Laval faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Laval: the grade is still to come
The grade weighs Laval’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Laval: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Laval’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Laval at 0.001% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Laval: forest fuel is 0.5% within 5 km and 3.5% 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
At 0.001% a year, Laval ranks 136th of the 514 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; Laval 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.
2 flood studies cover Laval, the newest from Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal
Flood studies whose area touches Laval, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Laval, the newest Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal’s from 2008, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montréal-Argenteuil-Deux-Montagnes-Vaudreuil-Soulanges | Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal | 2008 | final |
| Moulins-Thérèse-De-Blainville-Deux-Montagnes-Laval | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Laval is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
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 Laval.
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.
High seismic risk in Laval: $0.21 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.21 per $1,000, Laval carries roughly 6.9 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.21, Laval is above the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière has the most at $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.
Laval is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 7.9% rank 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 Laval’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).
Test for radon in Laval: 12% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Laval’s area, at 12%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Laval health region, Laval included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Laval’s area, at 12%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 0.9% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Laval, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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 Laval only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Laval
Alerts for Laval 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Laval to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Laval
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laval | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Laval-des-Rapides 41,971 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Chomedey 81,813 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Le Boisé Champêtre 37,891 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Pont-Viau 14,608 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Vimont 31,166 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | None listed |
| Sainte-Rose 37,408 · 4.9 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
Laval’s low band tops its neighbours; Laval-des-Rapides is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Laval faces
What to do about the hazards Laval 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Laval until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Laval’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Laval’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Laval without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Laval
Is radon a problem in Laval?
In Health Canada’s survey, 12% of 107 homes tested in Laval’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Laval flood?
A flood study covers Laval on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Laval’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
The grade is still to come for Laval, and it will weigh seismic risk and radon, with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Laval?
Expected earthquake damage in Laval comes to $0.21 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Laval at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Laval has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).