Photo: Veillg1 · CC0Saint-Albert’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 0% of area homes over the radon guideline
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Saint-Albert: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Saint-Albert grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Saint-Albert’s hazards
For Saint-Albert, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Albert faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Saint-Albert: A−
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint-Albert’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 58 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 Saint-Albert has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Albert’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Saint-Albert fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 11 km from Saint-Albert’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Saint-Albert: 13% within 5 km, 17% 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 514
Saint-Albert burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 514 towns in Quebec; the leader, 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Saint-Albert 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 Saint-Albert
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Albert, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Saint-Albert, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Saint-Albert.
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 Saint-Albert.
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 Saint-Albert: $0.10 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.
Saint-Albert’s $0.10 is about 3.4 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
At $0.10, Saint-Albert is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 26% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Albert.
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).
For Saint-Albert the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
0% of homes tested around Saint-Albert are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Saint-Albert’s area has fewer, 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Saint-Albert than in most towns in Quebec: 0% against 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Albert’s band, which holds 37%.
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 Saint-Albert 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 Saint-Albert
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Albert; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Saint-Albert come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint-Albert’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Albert | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Valère 1,187 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | Yes |
| Warwick 4,939 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.066 | 0% | None listed |
| Victoriaville 49,863 · 11 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | Yes |
| Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton 1,647 · 11 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Christophe-d'Arthabaska 3,307 · 12 km | Low | $0.054 | 0% | Yes |
| Tingwick 1,567 · 17 km | Low | $0.047 | 0% | Yes |
Nowhere around Saint-Albert burns more: Saint-Valère, 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 Saint-Albert faces
Practical steps for Saint-Albert’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. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Albert without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Albert’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Albert, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Saint-Albert until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Albert
Is radon a problem in Saint-Albert?
0% of the 58 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Albert topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Saint-Albert’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Albert grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Albert?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Albert comes to $0.10 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Saint-Albert at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Albert’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 Saint-Albert flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Albert (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).