Photo: Gaétan Veillette · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Saint-Damase: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Little of the land around Saint-Damase has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is about average around Saint-Damase: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Saint-Damase grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Damase’s hazards
For Saint-Damase, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Damase faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Damase grades C for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Saint-Damase, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Damase has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Damase’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Saint-Damase burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Only 1.4% of the land within 25 km of Saint-Damase is forest fuel, and 0.2% close in.
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-Damase 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Saint-Damase 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Saint-Damase (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Damase, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Saint-Damase is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 1983; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yamaska-St-Hyacinthe-St-césaire | Gouvernement du Québec | 1983 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Saint-Damase is one of them.
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-Damase.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Saint-Damase: $0.12 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-Damase loses $0.12, 4.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Saint-Damase runs at $0.12 a year, near the $0.14 of the typical town in Quebec; 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.
23% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint-Damase, 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-Damase.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.2% of homes tested around Saint-Damase are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Saint-Damase, 8.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Saint-Damase alone, so this card uses the figure for the Monteregie health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Saint-Damase 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Damase’s 5–10% 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.
Neighbouring homes in Saint-Damase 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-Damase
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Damase; 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-Damase, 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-Damase
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Damase | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Pie 6,085 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marie-Madeleine 2,940 · 8.6 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Rougemont 2,832 · 9.1 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Jean-Baptiste 3,332 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Sainte-Madeleine 2,387 · 11 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Césaire 6,150 · 12 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
Saint-Jean-Baptiste burns a little more than Saint-Damase, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Damase faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Damase 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Saint-Damase’s included.
- 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-Damase until then.
- 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-Damase.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Damase without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Damase
Is radon a problem in Saint-Damase?
Around Saint-Damase, 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-Damase?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Damase.
How is Saint-Damase’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Damase’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Saint-Damase at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Saint-Damase since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Saint-Damase flood?
A flood study covers Saint-Damase on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).