Photo: Amakuha · CC BY 4.0Louis-Hébert’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 6.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Louis-Hébert, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.20 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Louis-Hébert grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Louis-Hébert’s hazards
For Louis-Hébert, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Louis-Hébert faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Louis-Hébert: C
Two inputs always count for Louis-Hébert, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Louis-Hébert has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Louis-Hébert’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.002% a year keeps Louis-Hébert in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Fire has stayed at least 16 km from Louis-Hébert’s homes since 1986.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Louis-Hébert: forest fuel is 0.1% within 5 km and 1% 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
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Louis-Hébert, at 0.002%, ranks 35th of 513.
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.
Louis-Hébert 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Louis-Hébert
Flood studies whose area touches Louis-Hébert, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Louis-Hébert, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Louis-Hébert 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 Louis-Hébert.
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.”
High seismic risk in Louis-Hébert: $0.20 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Louis-Hébert loses $0.20, 6.7 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Louis-Hébert’s $0.20 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.
Louis-Hébert is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 8.5% rank 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Louis-Hébert.
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 Montréal)
Radon about average around Louis-Hébert: 6.8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
6.8% of tested homes around Louis-Hébert were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Quebec has 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; Louis-Hébert’s area has 6.8%, much the same.
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 Louis-Hébert 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.
Whatever Louis-Hébert’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Montreal health region
Where to get warnings in Louis-Hébert
Alerts for Louis-Hébert 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 Louis-Hébert 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 Louis-Hébert
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louis-Hébert | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Père-Marquette 19,702 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Étienne Desmarteaux 16,603 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Gabriel-Sagard 20,719 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Rosemont 28,353 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Parc-Laurier 18,312 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Édouard 16,771 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Louis-Hébert has the most fire on record (low); Père-Marquette follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Louis-Hébert faces
What to do about the hazards Louis-Hébert 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Louis-Hébert’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Louis-Hébert sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Louis-Hébert, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Louis-Hébert floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Louis-Hébert
How is Louis-Hébert’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Louis-Hébert C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Louis-Hébert?
Expected earthquake damage in Louis-Hébert comes to $0.20 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Louis-Hébert flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Louis-Hébert’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Louis-Hébert at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Louis-Hébert since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Louis-Hébert?
Around Louis-Hébert, 74 survey homes were tested and 6.8% 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).