Photo: Pymouss · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Amable’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.2% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Amable: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.19 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Amable grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Amable’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Amable: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Amable 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-Amable: C−
The grade weighs Saint-Amable’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #354 of 507 in Quebec and #2,322 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.
Few fires near Saint-Amable: 0.3% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Amable’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.001% burned a year, Saint-Amable is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Saint-Amable: 5.2% within 5 km and 1.7% 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 513
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Saint-Amable ranks 136th of 513, at 0.001% 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Amable burns, but slower than in the 7.5% 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.
No flood study is listed for Saint-Amable
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Amable, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Saint-Amable, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Saint-Amable is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Saint-Amable’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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-Amable: $0.19 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Saint-Amable loses $0.19, 6.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Saint-Amable’s $0.19 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 13% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Saint-Amable.
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 Saint-Amable’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).
Some radon around Saint-Amable: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Saint-Amable, 8.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Saint-Amable is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 8.2%, beside a median of 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Saint-Amable is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Saint-Amable only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Monteregie health region
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Amable
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Amable; 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-Amable come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Amable
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Amable | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil 2,999 · 6.6 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Julie 30,981 · 7.0 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu 2,284 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu 1,867 · 8.7 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Beloeil 25,240 · 10 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Varennes 21,490 · 11 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
The fire record around Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil is a touch heavier than Saint-Amable’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Amable faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Amable 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Saint-Amable’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Saint-Amable.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint-Amable takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Amable’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 Saint-Amable
Is Saint-Amable at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Saint-Amable since 1986 (last in 2015); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Amable?
Around Saint-Amable, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Amable?
About $0.19 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Amable.
How is Saint-Amable’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Amable grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Saint-Amable flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Saint-Amable’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).