Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Bourg-Royal: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.8% of tested homes
Wildfire barely registers for Bourg-Royal, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.14 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Bourg-Royal grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Bourg-Royal’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Bourg-Royal: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Bourg-Royal faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bourg-Royal grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Bourg-Royal’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #294 of 507 in Quebec and #2,256 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Few fires near Bourg-Royal: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Bourg-Royal’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.001% of the land near Bourg-Royal burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Bourg-Royal’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 9.6 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Bourg-Royal: 6.3% of the land within 5 km, 25% 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
Bourg-Royal 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Bourg-Royal stays low, with 92%.
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 Bourg-Royal
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Bourg-Royal: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Bourg-Royal has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Bourg-Royal.
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 Bourg-Royal.
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 Bourg-Royal $0.14 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Bourg-Royal’s $0.14 is about 4.6 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Bourg-Royal ($0.14) matches the middle in Quebec ($0.14), far from La Pocatière’s $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Bourg-Royal.
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 loss is to Bourg-Royal’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Québec
Some radon around Bourg-Royal: 8.8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Capitale-Nationale health region
At 8.8% over the guideline, the area around Bourg-Royal is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
2.5% of tests around Bourg-Royal passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 8.8% matches 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.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Bourg-Royal, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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 Bourg-Royal only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Bourg-Royal
Alerts for Bourg-Royal 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 Bourg-Royal 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)
How Bourg-Royal’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourg-Royal | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Jésuites 15,792 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Orsainville 14,751 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Charlesbourg 9,660 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Michel 17,303 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Moulin 15,935 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Rodrigue 12,018 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Bourg-Royal has the most fire on record (low); Orsainville follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bourg-Royal faces
Practical steps for Bourg-Royal’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.
- 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. 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 Bourg-Royal floods.
- 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 Bourg-Royal sits in.
- 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 Bourg-Royal’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Bourg-Royal’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 Bourg-Royal
Does Bourg-Royal flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Bourg-Royal (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bourg-Royal?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Bourg-Royal $0.14 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Bourg-Royal?
8.8% of the 160 homes Health Canada tested around Bourg-Royal topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Bourg-Royal at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Bourg-Royal’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Bourg-Royal’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bourg-Royal C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).