Photo: Judicieux · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 8.8%: how Sillery stands on hazards
For Sillery, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.14 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Sillery grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Sillery’s hazards
For Sillery, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sillery faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Sillery: C−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Sillery with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Sillery: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sillery’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Sillery burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Sillery’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 19 km away.
Forest fuel rises from 0.4% within 5 km of Sillery to 22% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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
Of the 513 towns in Quebec, 144 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Sillery among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% a year.
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 holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Sillery sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 Sillery
Flood studies whose area touches Sillery, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Sillery, 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 Sillery has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Sillery.
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.”
Shaking is Sillery’s costliest hazard: $0.14 a year per $1,000
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; Sillery loses $0.14, 4.6 times as much.
Figures for earthquake risk are published for the city of Québec as a whole, not for Sillery alone.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Sillery ($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.
Sillery sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 20% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Sillery.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Sillery: 8.8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Capitale-Nationale health region
Sillery’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.8% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
2.5% of tests around Sillery 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Sillery 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.
A low area share in Sillery doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Sillery
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sillery; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Sillery, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Sillery
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sillery | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Sacrement 10,650 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Cité-Universitaire 22,546 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis 15,792 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Montcalm 13,572 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Lévis 160,882 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 13% | Yes |
| Saint-Sauveur 16,104 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Sillery (low); Saint-Sacrement comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sillery faces
What to do about the hazards Sillery 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 Sillery’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’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 Sillery 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 Sillery sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Sillery, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sillery
Is Sillery at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Sillery since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sillery?
About $0.14 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Sillery.
How is Sillery’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sillery grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Sillery flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Sillery’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Sillery?
Around Sillery, 160 survey homes were tested and 8.8% 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).