Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Gabriel is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Gabriel: 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 $0.088 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 3.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Saint-Gabriel grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Saint-Gabriel’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Gabriel: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Gabriel 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-Gabriel: B
Two inputs always count for Saint-Gabriel, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #57 of 507 in Quebec and #1,419 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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-Gabriel: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Gabriel’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Saint-Gabriel each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Saint-Gabriel’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 11 km out.
The nearer ring around Saint-Gabriel is less wooded (18% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (32%).
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 513
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Saint-Gabriel ranks 136th of 513, 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Saint-Gabriel stays low, with 92%.
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.
A flood study covers Saint-Gabriel, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Gabriel, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Saint-Gabriel the inventory points to Gouvernement du Québec’s 2005 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mandeville | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Saint-Gabriel has one.
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-Gabriel.
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-Gabriel: $0.088 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-Gabriel loses $0.088, 2.9 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.088, Saint-Gabriel is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is highest at $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: 27% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Gabriel.
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-Gabriel’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).
Radon runs low around Saint-Gabriel: 3.9% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Saint-Gabriel’s area, at 3.9%. Saint-Gabriel doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Lanaudiere health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Saint-Gabriel’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.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Saint-Gabriel; 63% sit 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.
One home in Saint-Gabriel 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-Gabriel
Alerts for Saint-Gabriel 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-Gabriel to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Gabriel
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Gabriel | Low | $0.088 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon 2,916 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.074 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Norbert 1,143 · 11 km | Low | $0.11 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Mandeville 2,511 · 12 km | Low | $0.056 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Damien 2,569 · 13 km | Low | $0.051 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Jean-de-Matha 5,415 · 14 km | Low | $0.068 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Félix-de-Valois 7,670 · 15 km | Low | $0.089 | 3.9% | None listed |
The fire record around Saint-Damien is a touch heavier than Saint-Gabriel’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Gabriel faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Gabriel 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Gabriel’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Saint-Gabriel’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint-Gabriel takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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-Gabriel.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Gabriel
Is Saint-Gabriel at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Saint-Gabriel since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Gabriel?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Gabriel comes to $0.088 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Saint-Gabriel’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Gabriel B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Gabriel?
Around Saint-Gabriel, 77 survey homes were tested and 3.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Saint-Gabriel flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Saint-Gabriel; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
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).