![Rue principale de Saint-Alexis . - [1930]](https://images.townratings.com/ca/town_images/52463023/377c4aab45ebaac4dce8.jpg)
Photo: Unknown Unknown · Public domainWildfire low, radon 3.9%: how Saint-Alexis stands on hazards
Little of the land around Saint-Alexis has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.17 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Saint-Alexis a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Alexis’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Alexis: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Alexis faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Alexis grades C+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Saint-Alexis, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 77 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Alexis: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Alexis’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Saint-Alexis burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Close to Saint-Alexis there is little to burn (0.2% forest fuel within 5 km), but 13% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
At 0.001% a year, Saint-Alexis ranks 136th of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini leads 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Saint-Alexis 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.
No flood study is listed for Saint-Alexis
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Alexis, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Saint-Alexis; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Saint-Alexis; 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Saint-Alexis.
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 Saint-Alexis $0.17 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Saint-Alexis loses $0.17, 5.8 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.17, Saint-Alexis is above the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière has the most 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.
14% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint-Alexis, 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 loss is to Saint-Alexis’ 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).
Radon runs low around Saint-Alexis: 3.9% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Saint-Alexis’ area has fewer, 3.9%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Lanaudiere health region, Saint-Alexis included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Saint-Alexis (3.9%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Saint-Alexis; 63% sit 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 share describes the area, not a house: in Saint-Alexis as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Alexis
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Alexis; 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 Saint-Alexis, 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)
How Saint-Alexis’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Alexis | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Julienne 12,990 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.11 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Jacques 4,830 · 5.8 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Esprit 2,313 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Liguori 2,268 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan 5,675 · 12 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marie-Salomé 1,296 · 12 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | None listed |
Sainte-Julienne (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint-Alexis’ neighbours, and Saint-Alexis (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Alexis faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Alexis 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Alexis is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Alexis’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Saint-Alexis.
- 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 Saint-Alexis’.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Alexis
Is Saint-Alexis at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Saint-Alexis since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Saint-Alexis’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Alexis grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Alexis?
Around Saint-Alexis, 77 survey homes were tested and 3.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Saint-Alexis flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Saint-Alexis’ flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Alexis?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Alexis comes to $0.17 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).