Photo: Malagauche · CC BY-SA 3.0Les Éboulements faces more hazards than 87% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches Les Éboulements: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.34 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.8% of homes tested in Les Éboulements’ area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Les Éboulements grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Les Éboulements’s hazards
For Les Éboulements, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Les Éboulements faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Les Éboulements grades D for hazard risk
The grade weighs Les Éboulements’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Les Éboulements: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Les Éboulements’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Les Éboulements fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Nothing inside 5 km of Les Éboulements’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 7.0 km off.
About as much forest grows next to Les Éboulements’ homes (74% within 5 km) as across 25 km (70%).
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
Les Éboulements burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 514 towns in Quebec; the leader, Mistissini, reaches 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Les Éboulements reads low, with 92% of them; only 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 Les Éboulements
Flood studies whose area touches Les Éboulements, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Les Éboulements on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Les Éboulements; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below 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 Les Éboulements.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Les Éboulements $0.34 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.34 per $1,000, Les Éboulements carries roughly 11.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Les Éboulements’ $0.34 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière highest 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 Les Éboulements: 5.8% 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Les Éboulements is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.8% of homes tested around Les Éboulements are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Les Éboulements, 8.8% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Capitale-Nationale health region, Les Éboulements included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
2.5% of tests around Les Éboulements passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 8.8% matches the median in Quebec, 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 Les Éboulements’ 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.
Neighbouring homes in Les Éboulements can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Les Éboulements
Alerts for Les Éboulements 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. |
Evacuation orders for Les Éboulements come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Les Éboulements
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Les Éboulements | Low | $0.34 | 8.8% | None listed |
| L'Isle-aux-Coudres 1,083 · 7.1 km | Low | $0.39 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Hilarion 1,221 · 13 km | Low | $0.37 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Baie-Saint-Paul 7,760 · 14 km | Low | $0.29 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Urbain 1,431 · 18 km | Moderate | $0.25 | 8.8% | Yes |
Saint-Urbain has the most fire around it, a moderate band against Les Éboulements’ low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Les Éboulements faces
What to do about the hazards Les Éboulements 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Les Éboulements.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Les Éboulements is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Les Éboulements, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Les Éboulements’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Les Éboulements
Is radon a problem in Les Éboulements?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.8% of 160 homes tested in Les Éboulements’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Les Éboulements’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Les Éboulements D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Les Éboulements?
Expected earthquake damage in Les Éboulements comes to $0.34 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Les Éboulements flood?
Nothing is listed for Les Éboulements on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Les Éboulements at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Les Éboulements has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, 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).