Photo: Germain Beauchamp · Public domainOn hazards, Laval-Ouest comes out behind 93% of Canadian towns
Around Laval-Ouest, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.21 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 12% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Laval-Ouest a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Laval-Ouest’s hazards
For Laval-Ouest, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Laval-Ouest faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Laval-Ouest grades D for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Laval-Ouest with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #485 of 507 in Quebec and #2,507 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Laval-Ouest: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Laval-Ouest’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Laval-Ouest fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 5.9 km from Laval-Ouest’s homes, none within 5 km.
Only 2.4% of the land within 25 km of Laval-Ouest is forest fuel, and 0.3% close in.
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
At 0.001% a year, Laval-Ouest ranks 136th of the 513 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Laval-Ouest 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.
Laval-Ouest is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Laval-Ouest, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Laval-Ouest is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2006; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moulins-Thérèse-De-Blainville-Deux-Montagnes-Laval | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Laval-Ouest is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Laval-Ouest’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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-Ouest: $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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Laval-Ouest loses $0.21, 6.9 times as much.
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Laval, with Laval-Ouest one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.21, Laval-Ouest 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Laval-Ouest: 7.9% of them.
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 Laval-Ouest.
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-Ouest: 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.
A higher share than most: 12% of tested homes around Laval-Ouest, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Laval-Ouest doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Laval health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Laval-Ouest (12%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Laval-Ouest 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.
A low area share in Laval-Ouest 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 Laval-Ouest
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Laval-Ouest; 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 Laval-Ouest, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Laval-Ouest’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laval-Ouest | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Deux-Montagnes 18,516 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.20 | 10% | Yes |
| Saint-Eustache 47,562 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.20 | 10% | Yes |
| Fabreville 48,457 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Sainte-Dorothée 38,183 · 4.9 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac 21,949 · 5.7 km | Low | $0.19 | 10% | Yes |
| L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève 18,885 · 5.8 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | Yes |
Deux-Montagnes (low) has the heaviest fire record of Laval-Ouest’s neighbours, and Laval-Ouest (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Laval-Ouest faces
What to do about the hazards Laval-Ouest 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Laval-Ouest.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Laval-Ouest’s included.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Laval-Ouest floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Laval-Ouest sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Laval-Ouest
Is Laval-Ouest at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Laval-Ouest since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Laval-Ouest’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Laval-Ouest’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Laval-Ouest?
About $0.21 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Laval-Ouest.
Does Laval-Ouest flood?
Laval-Ouest’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Laval-Ouest?
Around Laval-Ouest, 107 survey homes were tested and 12% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).