Photo: Anonymous Unknown author · Public domainWildfire low, radon 10%: how Rivière-Rouge stands on hazards
Around Rivière-Rouge, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.076 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Rivière-Rouge a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rivière-Rouge’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rivière-Rouge: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rivière-Rouge faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Rivière-Rouge: C
For Rivière-Rouge, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #241 of 507 in Quebec and #2,190 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Rivière-Rouge: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Rivière-Rouge’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Rivière-Rouge 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 Rivière-Rouge’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 13 km away.
More forest grows near Rivière-Rouge’s homes (37% within 5 km) than across 25 km (31%).
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Rivière-Rouge, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list at 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Rivière-Rouge, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Rivière-Rouge
Flood studies whose area touches Rivière-Rouge, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Rivière-Rouge on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Rivière-Rouge has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Rivière-Rouge’s homes are at risk.
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 Rivière-Rouge $0.076 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 2.5 times the typical $0.030: Rivière-Rouge’s $0.076 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Rivière-Rouge, at $0.076, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Rivière-Rouge, 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 Rivière-Rouge’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).
Radon runs high around Rivière-Rouge: 10% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Rivière-Rouge: 10% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Figures for radon tests are published for the Laurentides health region as a whole, not for Rivière-Rouge alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Rivière-Rouge’s area, at 10%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 1.3% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Rivière-Rouge, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go higher.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Rivière-Rouge; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Rivière-Rouge
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rivière-Rouge; 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. |
For fires near Rivière-Rouge, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rivière-Rouge
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rivière-Rouge | Low | $0.076 | 10% | None listed |
| Nominingue 2,290 · 11 km | Low | $0.080 | 10% | None listed |
| La Macaza 1,138 · 12 km | Low | $0.084 | 10% | None listed |
| La Minerve 1,492 · 18 km | Low | $0.072 | 10% | None listed |
La Minerve burns a little more than Rivière-Rouge, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rivière-Rouge faces
Practical steps for Rivière-Rouge’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Rivière-Rouge.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rivière-Rouge is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Rivière-Rouge’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Rivière-Rouge’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 Rivière-Rouge
Is radon a problem in Rivière-Rouge?
The area’s survey found 10% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Rivière-Rouge.
Does Rivière-Rouge flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Rivière-Rouge, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rivière-Rouge?
About $0.076 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Rivière-Rouge.
How is Rivière-Rouge’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Rivière-Rouge grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Rivière-Rouge at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Rivière-Rouge’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
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).