Photo: Jeangagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Saint-Flavien comes out behind 90% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Saint-Flavien, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.12 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Saint-Flavien a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Flavien’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Flavien: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Flavien faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Flavien grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Flavien’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Flavien: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Saint-Flavien’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Saint-Flavien burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Saint-Flavien’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 23 km away.
Forest fuel covers 17% of the land close to Saint-Flavien and 39% across 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 514
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Saint-Flavien, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Saint-Flavien 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Saint-Flavien
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Flavien: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Saint-Flavien 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-Flavien 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 studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Saint-Flavien.
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-Flavien: $0.12 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 4.1 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Flavien’s $0.12 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Saint-Flavien ($0.12) matches the middle in Quebec ($0.14), far from La Pocatière’s $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-Flavien sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 23% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Saint-Flavien’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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-Flavien are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A higher share than most: 13% of tested homes around Saint-Flavien, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Saint-Flavien doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Saint-Flavien (13%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.6% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Saint-Flavien, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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 survey sampled homes around Saint-Flavien; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Flavien
Alerts for Saint-Flavien come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Saint-Flavien are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Flavien
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Flavien | Low | $0.12 | 13% | None listed |
| Laurier-Station 2,838 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Janvier-de-Joly 1,204 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Agapit 4,817 · 12 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | Yes |
| Saint-Apollinaire 9,218 · 13 km | Low | $0.14 | 13% | None listed |
| Lyster 1,679 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Sainte-Croix 2,612 · 16 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | None listed |
Sainte-Croix burns a little more than Saint-Flavien, 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-Flavien faces
Practical steps for Saint-Flavien’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Flavien’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-Flavien’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Saint-Flavien floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Saint-Flavien sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Flavien
Does Saint-Flavien flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Flavien, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Saint-Flavien’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Flavien D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Flavien?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Saint-Flavien $0.12 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Saint-Flavien at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Flavien’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2018) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Flavien?
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-Flavien.
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).