Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Hazards in Saint-Gédéon: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 2.8% of tested homes
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Gédéon: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.22 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Saint-Gédéon grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Saint-Gédéon’s hazards
For Saint-Gédéon, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Gédéon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Gédéon grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Gédéon’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. Only 72 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Gédéon has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Saint-Gédéon’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.002% a year keeps Saint-Gédéon in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Saint-Gédéon’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 16 km away.
Within 5 km of Saint-Gédéon, 21% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 53%.
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 0.002% a year, Saint-Gédéon is near the top in Quebec: 35th of 514, behind Mistissini (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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Gédéon burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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-Gédéon
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Gédéon: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Saint-Gédéon, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Saint-Gédéon has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
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-Gédéon’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.”
Shaking is Saint-Gédéon’s costliest hazard: $0.22 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 7.5 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Gédéon’s $0.22 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Saint-Gédéon’s $0.22 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière 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.
Saint-Gédéon is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 7.3% rank 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Saint-Gédéon is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Saint-Gédéon: 2.8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Saint-Gédéon’s area has fewer, 2.8%. Saint-Gédéon doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Gédéon, 2.8% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³, under the median in Quebec (8.2%); 1.4% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Saint-Gédéon shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Saint-Gédéon’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint-Gédéon
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Gédéon; 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-Gédéon 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-Gédéon’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Gédéon | Low | $0.22 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Bruno 2,935 · 7.5 km | Low | $0.24 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Hébertville-Station 1,298 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.27 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Alma 30,659 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.22 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Métabetchouan--Lac-à-la-Croix 4,230 · 12 km | Low | $0.18 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Hébertville 2,588 · 13 km | Low | $0.20 | 2.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Nazaire 2,167 · 16 km | Low | $0.21 | 2.8% | None listed |
The fire record around Hébertville is a touch heavier than Saint-Gédéon’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-Gédéon faces
Practical steps for Saint-Gédéon’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Saint-Gédéon’s included.
- 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-Gédéon.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Gédéon without grading them.
- 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-Gédéon until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Gédéon
Does Saint-Gédéon flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Gédéon, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Saint-Gédéon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Gédéon grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Gédéon?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Saint-Gédéon’s buildings lose $0.22 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Gédéon?
The area’s survey found 2.8% of 72 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Gédéon.
Is Saint-Gédéon at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Gédéon’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
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).