Photo: Hayden Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Anjou’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 6.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Anjou, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.001% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.20 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Anjou a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Anjou’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Anjou: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Anjou faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Anjou grades C for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Anjou with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #161 of 507 in Quebec and #2,110 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 74 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Anjou: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Anjou’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.001% burned a year, Anjou is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Anjou’s homes came within 15 km, never inside 5 km.
Only 2.3% of the land within 25 km of Anjou is forest fuel, and 0.2% 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
Anjou sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 513 towns, at 0.001% a year, well behind Mistissini (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, Anjou 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Anjou
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Anjou: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Anjou; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Anjou 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Anjou floods.
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 Anjou $0.20 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.20 per $1,000, Anjou carries roughly 6.7 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Anjou’s $0.20 tops the median in Quebec, $0.14, though La Pocatière reaches $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 Anjou: 8.5% 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).
The model counts damage to Anjou’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). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Montréal
Radon about average around Anjou: 6.8% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Anjou’s area, at 6.8%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Anjou’s area, at 6.8%, 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.
Anjou is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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 Anjou only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Montreal health region
Weather and fire alerts for Anjou
Alerts for Anjou 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 Anjou 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)
How Anjou’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anjou | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Dupéré 15,036 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Louis-Riel 19,647 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Grande-Prairie 34,316 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Tétreaultville 19,390 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Longue-Pointe 20,337 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Beaurivage 13,574 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
The fire record around Louis-Riel is a touch heavier than Anjou’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Anjou faces
What to do about the hazards Anjou 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
- 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 Anjou sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Anjou’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Anjou’s.
- 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 Anjou floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Anjou
How big is the earthquake risk in Anjou?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Anjou’s buildings lose $0.20 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Anjou’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Anjou C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Anjou?
In Health Canada’s survey, 6.8% of 74 homes tested in Anjou’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Anjou flood?
Nothing is listed for Anjou on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Anjou at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Anjou has burned since 1986, the last in 2019, 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).