Laflèche’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.2% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Laflèche: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.23 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Laflèche grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Laflèche’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Laflèche: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Laflèche faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Laflèche grades C− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Laflèche, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #383 of 507 in Quebec and #2,362 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Laflèche: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Laflèche’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Laflèche burns at 0.002% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Laflèche’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 7.7 km out.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Laflèche: forest fuel is 0.3% within 5 km and 0.7% 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
The land around Laflèche burns at 0.002% a year, the 35th highest rate of 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it 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.
Laflèche is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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 Laflèche
Flood studies whose area touches Laflèche, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Laflèche has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Laflèche 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 Laflèche.
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 Laflèche $0.23 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Laflèche loses $0.23, 7.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.23, Laflèche 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.
Only 6.4% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Laflèche.
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 Laflèche’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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Longueuil)
Some radon around Laflèche: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Laflèche, 8.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Laflèche’s area, at 8.2%, is close to 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Laflèche with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 Laflèche only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Monteregie health region
Weather and fire alerts for Laflèche
Alerts for Laflèche 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 Laflèche 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)
Hazards in the places around Laflèche
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laflèche | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Robert 9,186 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Vieux Greenfield Park 10,998 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Nouveau Greenfield Park 6,199 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Jean-Vianney 13,181 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Lemoyne 5,052 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Vincent-de-Paul 8,352 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
Laflèche’s low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Robert is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Laflèche faces
What to do about the hazards Laflèche 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. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Laflèche.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Laflèche’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Laflèche’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Laflèche takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Laflèche
Does Laflèche flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Laflèche’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Laflèche?
Around Laflèche, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Laflèche at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Laflèche since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Laflèche’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Laflèche grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Laflèche?
About $0.23 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Laflèche.
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).