Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainSaint-Barnabé’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 0% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Barnabé: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.12 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Barnabé grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Saint-Barnabé’s hazards
For Saint-Barnabé, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Barnabé faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Barnabé grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Barnabé’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Barnabé: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Barnabé’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Saint-Barnabé burns at 0.002% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Saint-Barnabé’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 7.3 km off.
Within 5 km of Saint-Barnabé, 15% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 25%.
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
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Saint-Barnabé, at 0.002%, ranks 35th of 514.
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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Saint-Barnabé reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank higher.
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-Barnabé
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Barnabé, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Saint-Barnabé on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Saint-Barnabé is not among them.
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 Saint-Barnabé’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.”
Shaking is Saint-Barnabé’s costliest hazard: $0.12 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 4.1 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Barnabé’s $0.12 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Quebec: Saint-Barnabé’s $0.12 sits by the median of $0.14, while La Pocatière reaches $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.
23% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint-Barnabé, 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Saint-Barnabé.
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-Barnabé: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region: radon tests
Fewer homes than usual test high around Saint-Barnabé: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Saint-Barnabé’s area, at 0%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Saint-Barnabé shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Saint-Barnabé can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint-Barnabé
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Barnabé; 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-Barnabé, 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 Saint-Barnabé
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Barnabé | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Étienne-des-Grès 4,675 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Charette 1,178 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Yamachiche 2,801 · 10 km | Low | $0.14 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Boniface 5,405 · 13 km | Low | $0.090 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Élie-de-Caxton 2,062 · 14 km | Low | $0.076 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Paulin 1,659 · 15 km | Low | $0.086 | 0% | Yes |
The fire record around Saint-Boniface is a touch heavier than Saint-Barnabé’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-Barnabé faces
Practical steps for Saint-Barnabé’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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Saint-Barnabé.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Barnabé is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Saint-Barnabé’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Saint-Barnabé.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Barnabé
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Barnabé?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Barnabé.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Barnabé?
The area’s survey found 0% of 58 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Barnabé.
How is Saint-Barnabé’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Barnabé B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Saint-Barnabé flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Barnabé, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Saint-Barnabé at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Barnabé’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) 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).