Photo: Vintotal · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Lorrainville are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 4.3% of area homes above the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Lorrainville, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.006% a year). For earthquakes Lorrainville is middling, $0.055 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Lorrainville grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Lorrainville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lorrainville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lorrainville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lorrainville: B+
For Lorrainville, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 69 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.
Few fires near Lorrainville: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lorrainville’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.006% of the land near Lorrainville burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Lorrainville’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 8.2 km away.
The nearer ring around Lorrainville is less wooded (18% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (44%).
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
The land around Lorrainville burns at 0.006% a year, the 27th highest rate of 514 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Lorrainville 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 Lorrainville
Flood studies whose area touches Lorrainville, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Lorrainville; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Lorrainville; 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 mapping is shown for Lorrainville to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Lorrainville: $0.055 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.
Nothing unusual about Lorrainville’s ground: $0.055 against a typical $0.030, 1.8 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Lorrainville, at $0.055, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Lorrainville.
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).
The model counts damage to Lorrainville’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
4.3% of homes tested around Lorrainville are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region
Lorrainville’s survey area reads 4.3% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Lorrainville (4.3%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Lorrainville with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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 Lorrainville 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 Lorrainville
Alerts for Lorrainville 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 Lorrainville 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 Lorrainville
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorrainville | Low | $0.055 | 4.3% | None listed |
| Ville-Marie 2,421 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.040 | 4.3% | None listed |
| Saint-Bruno-de-Guigues 1,197 · 15 km | Low | $0.034 | 4.3% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Ville-Marie (low), still no more than Lorrainville (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lorrainville faces
Practical steps for Lorrainville’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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 Lorrainville’s.
- 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 Lorrainville.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Lorrainville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lorrainville’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lorrainville
How big is the earthquake risk in Lorrainville?
Expected earthquake damage in Lorrainville comes to $0.055 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Lorrainville?
4.3% of the 69 homes Health Canada tested around Lorrainville topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Lorrainville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lorrainville B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Lorrainville at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Lorrainville’s band is low, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Lorrainville flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Lorrainville (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).