Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY 2.0Wildfire moderate, radon 4.7%: how Maliotenam stands on hazards
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Maliotenam: 3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.07% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Earthquake risk in Maliotenam is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.045 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Maliotenam a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Maliotenam’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Maliotenam: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Maliotenam faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Maliotenam grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Maliotenam with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Some fire around Maliotenam: 3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 1.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Maliotenam’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Maliotenam is 0.07%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Within 5 km of Maliotenam, 78% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 83%.
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 Maliotenam burns at 0.07% a year, the 7th 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.
Moderate puts Maliotenam above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Maliotenam
Flood studies whose area touches Maliotenam, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Maliotenam has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Maliotenam has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
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 Maliotenam’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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Maliotenam $0.045 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.
With $0.045 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Maliotenam is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Maliotenam’s $0.045 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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.
Maliotenam sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 32% are 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).
The model counts damage to Maliotenam’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).
4.7% of homes tested around Maliotenam are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Cote-Nord health region: radon tests
4.7% of tested homes around Maliotenam were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Maliotenam than in most towns in Quebec: 4.7% against 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Maliotenam is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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 Maliotenam only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Maliotenam
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Maliotenam; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Maliotenam come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Maliotenam’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Maliotenam (moderate), with Sept-Îles next at moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Maliotenam faces
What to do about the hazards Maliotenam faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Maliotenam’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Maliotenam without grading them.
- 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 Maliotenam’s.
- 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 Maliotenam until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Maliotenam
How big is the earthquake risk in Maliotenam?
Expected earthquake damage in Maliotenam comes to $0.045 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Maliotenam at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 3% of the land around Maliotenam since 1986 (last in 2023); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Maliotenam’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Maliotenam’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Maliotenam flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Maliotenam’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Maliotenam?
Around Maliotenam, 107 survey homes were tested and 4.7% 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).