Photo: Cantons-de-l'Est · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Frédéric’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 13% of area homes over the radon guideline
Around Saint-Frédéric, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.043 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Saint-Frédéric, near the typical $0.030. Saint-Frédéric grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Frédéric’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Frédéric: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Frédéric faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Frédéric grades C for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint-Frédéric’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
Little of the land around Saint-Frédéric has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Frédéric’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Saint-Frédéric at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Saint-Frédéric’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 20 km out.
About as much forest grows next to Saint-Frédéric’s homes (42% within 5 km) as across 25 km (42%).
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
Near-zero burning puts Saint-Frédéric with 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini 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.
Saint-Frédéric shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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-Frédéric
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Frédéric, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Saint-Frédéric 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-Frédéric 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-Frédéric.
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-Frédéric: $0.043 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.
With $0.043 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Saint-Frédéric is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.4 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Saint-Frédéric’s $0.043 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 36% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Frédéric.
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-Frédéric’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).
Test for radon in Saint-Frédéric: 13% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Saint-Frédéric: 13% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Saint-Frédéric’s area, at 13%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 0.6% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Frédéric, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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-Frédéric 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). · Data for radon tests covers the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Frédéric
Alerts for Saint-Frédéric 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Saint-Frédéric to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint-Frédéric’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Frédéric | Low | $0.043 | 13% | None listed |
| Tring-Jonction 1,626 · 5.3 km | Low | $0.060 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce 5,339 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.056 | 13% | None listed |
| Vallée-Jonction 2,042 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.049 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Elzéar 2,842 · 13 km | Low | $0.051 | 13% | None listed |
| East Broughton 2,311 · 13 km | Low | $0.042 | 13% | None listed |
| Saints-Anges 1,364 · 14 km | Low | $0.058 | 13% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Saint-Frédéric has the most fire on record (low); Tring-Jonction follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Frédéric faces
Practical steps for Saint-Frédéric’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Frédéric’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-Frédéric’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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-Frédéric sits in.
- 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-Frédéric floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Frédéric
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Frédéric?
About $0.043 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Frédéric.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Frédéric?
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-Frédéric.
How is Saint-Frédéric’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Frédéric C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Saint-Frédéric at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Frédéric’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Does Saint-Frédéric flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Frédéric, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).