Photo: Metalex · CC BY-SA 3.0Saint-Esprit is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Esprit: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.17 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, just 3.9% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Saint-Esprit grades B− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Esprit’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Esprit: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Esprit faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Esprit grades B− for hazard risk
For Saint-Esprit, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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-Esprit: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Esprit’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Saint-Esprit at 0.001% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 5.2 km from Saint-Esprit’s homes since 1986.
Homes in Saint-Esprit sit on open or built-up ground (1.6% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 13%.
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
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Saint-Esprit ranks 136th of 514, 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Saint-Esprit among them, though its rate is above zero; 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-Esprit (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Esprit, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2005 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Saint-Esprit, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| St-Esprit | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Saint-Esprit apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
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-Esprit’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Saint-Esprit: $0.17 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.
Roughly 5.5 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Esprit’s $0.17 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Saint-Esprit runs at $0.17 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.
Saint-Esprit sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 14% are higher.
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-Esprit’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).
3.9% of homes tested around Saint-Esprit are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Saint-Esprit’s survey area reads 3.9% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Lanaudiere health region as a whole, not for Saint-Esprit alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Saint-Esprit’s area, at 3.9%, 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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Esprit’s 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.
One home in Saint-Esprit can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Esprit
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Esprit; 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-Esprit 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-Esprit’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Esprit | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Alexis 1,462 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan 5,675 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Julienne 12,990 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.11 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Lin--Laurentides 26,673 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Jacques 4,830 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marie-Salomé 1,296 · 14 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Saint-Esprit has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Alexis follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Esprit faces
Practical steps for Saint-Esprit’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?
- 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
- 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-Esprit.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint-Esprit takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Esprit’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Esprit’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Esprit
Is Saint-Esprit at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Esprit’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Saint-Esprit flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Saint-Esprit; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Saint-Esprit’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Esprit B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Esprit?
About $0.17 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Esprit.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Esprit?
The area’s survey found 3.9% of 77 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Esprit.
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).