Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 8.8%: how Vieux-Moulin stands on hazards
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Vieux-Moulin’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Vieux-Moulin grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Vieux-Moulin’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Vieux-Moulin: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Vieux-Moulin faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Vieux-Moulin grades C− for hazard risk
For Vieux-Moulin, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #294 of 507 in Quebec and #2,256 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Vieux-Moulin: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Vieux-Moulin’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Vieux-Moulin burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Vieux-Moulin’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 14 km away.
Homes in Vieux-Moulin sit on open or built-up ground (0.8% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 22%.
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Vieux-Moulin is zero, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec, while Mistissini reaches 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Vieux-Moulin, burning rounds to zero.
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.
No flood study is listed for Vieux-Moulin
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Vieux-Moulin: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Vieux-Moulin has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Vieux-Moulin; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Vieux-Moulin.
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 Vieux-Moulin $0.14 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Vieux-Moulin’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
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Vieux-Moulin, at $0.14, is right beside it, and La Pocatière tops the list 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.
20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Vieux-Moulin, which places it in the upper third.
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 Vieux-Moulin’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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Québec)
8.8% of homes tested around Vieux-Moulin are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Vieux-Moulin’s area, at 8.8%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town. Figures for radon tests are published for the Capitale-Nationale health region as a whole, not for Vieux-Moulin alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Quebec at 8.8% over 200 Bq/m³ (8.2% is the median), the area around Vieux-Moulin had 2.5% over 600.
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 Vieux-Moulin, 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.
One home in Vieux-Moulin can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Vieux-Moulin
Alerts for Vieux-Moulin 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 Vieux-Moulin 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)
Hazards in the places around Vieux-Moulin
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vieux-Moulin | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Maizerets 14,571 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Bourg 14,774 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Jésuites 15,792 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Lairet 15,251 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Limoilou 14,347 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Michel 17,303 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
Nowhere around Vieux-Moulin burns more: Maizerets, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Vieux-Moulin faces
Practical steps for Vieux-Moulin’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Vieux-Moulin’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Vieux-Moulin.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Vieux-Moulin is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Vieux-Moulin’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Vieux-Moulin
How big is the earthquake risk in Vieux-Moulin?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Vieux-Moulin $0.14 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Vieux-Moulin’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Vieux-Moulin grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Vieux-Moulin at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Vieux-Moulin’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.
Does Vieux-Moulin flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Vieux-Moulin (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Vieux-Moulin?
8.8% of the 160 homes Health Canada tested around Vieux-Moulin topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).