Photo: Richard Coté · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Benoît-Labre’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 13% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire isn’t Saint-Benoît-Labre’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk in Saint-Benoît-Labre sits near the middle: $0.052 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Benoît-Labre grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Benoît-Labre’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Benoît-Labre: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Benoît-Labre 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-Benoît-Labre: C−
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Benoît-Labre’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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Benoît-Labre: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Benoît-Labre’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Saint-Benoît-Labre in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Saint-Benoît-Labre’s homes came within 15 km, never inside 5 km.
Within 5 km of Saint-Benoît-Labre, 37% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 56%.
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
Of the 514 towns in Quebec, 145 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Saint-Benoît-Labre among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Saint-Benoît-Labre is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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-Benoît-Labre
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Benoît-Labre, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Saint-Benoît-Labre has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Saint-Benoît-Labre 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-Benoît-Labre’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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Saint-Benoît-Labre: $0.052 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.
At $0.052 per $1,000, Saint-Benoît-Labre’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Saint-Benoît-Labre’s $0.052 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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: 30% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Benoît-Labre.
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-Benoît-Labre’s 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).
13% of homes tested around Saint-Benoît-Labre are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region: radon tests
Saint-Benoît-Labre’s survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Saint-Benoît-Labre than in most towns in Quebec: 13% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 0.6% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Saint-Benoît-Labre is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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-Benoît-Labre as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Benoît-Labre
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Benoît-Labre; 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-Benoît-Labre 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-Benoît-Labre’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Benoît-Labre | Low | $0.052 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Georges 33,881 · 10 km | Low | $0.048 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Honoré-de-Shenley 1,610 · 11 km | Low | $0.045 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Victor 2,344 · 13 km | Low | $0.043 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-René 1,035 · 13 km | Low | $0.053 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Éphrem-de-Beauce 2,575 · 14 km | Low | $0.046 | 13% | Yes |
| Notre-Dame-des-Pins 1,935 · 14 km | Low | $0.044 | 13% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Saint-Benoît-Labre (low); Saint-Georges comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Benoît-Labre faces
Practical steps for Saint-Benoît-Labre’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Benoît-Labre’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Benoît-Labre’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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-Benoît-Labre.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Benoît-Labre is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Benoît-Labre
How is Saint-Benoît-Labre’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Benoît-Labre’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Saint-Benoît-Labre flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Benoît-Labre, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Saint-Benoît-Labre at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Benoît-Labre’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2016) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Benoît-Labre?
About $0.052 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Benoît-Labre.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Benoît-Labre?
The area’s survey found 13% of 175 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Benoît-Labre.
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).