Photo: Sohny Desrosiers-Perron · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Saint-Hilarion is higher than in 87% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches Saint-Hilarion: since 1986, 1.2% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.03% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.37 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Hilarion’s survey area, 8.8% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Saint-Hilarion grades D for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Saint-Hilarion’s hazards
For Saint-Hilarion, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Hilarion faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Hilarion grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Hilarion’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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Hilarion has burned: 0% within 5 km, 1.2% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Saint-Hilarion’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Saint-Hilarion burns at 0.03% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Saint-Hilarion’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 8.7 km off.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Saint-Hilarion: 75% within 5 km and 80% within 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
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Saint-Hilarion, at 0.03%, ranks 12th of 514.
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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Saint-Hilarion reads low, with 92% of them; only 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-Hilarion
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Hilarion: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Saint-Hilarion on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Saint-Hilarion.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Saint-Hilarion to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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-Hilarion: $0.37 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Saint-Hilarion’s $0.37 is about 12.5 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Saint-Hilarion’s $0.37 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-Hilarion is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 4.7% 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-Hilarion 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).
Some radon around Saint-Hilarion: 8.8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
8.8% of tested homes around Saint-Hilarion were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Hilarion, 8.8% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 2.5% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Saint-Hilarion, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Saint-Hilarion’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Capitale-Nationale health region)
Where to get warnings in Saint-Hilarion
Alerts for Saint-Hilarion 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-Hilarion 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-Hilarion
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Hilarion | Low | $0.37 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Urbain 1,431 · 8.7 km | Moderate | $0.25 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Les Éboulements 1,661 · 13 km | Low | $0.34 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Baie-Saint-Paul 7,760 · 15 km | Low | $0.29 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Aimé-des-Lacs 1,169 · 15 km | Moderate | $0.29 | 8.8% | None listed |
| L'Isle-aux-Coudres 1,083 · 18 km | Low | $0.39 | 8.8% | None listed |
Saint-Aimé-des-Lacs has the most fire around it, a moderate band against Saint-Hilarion’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Hilarion faces
Practical steps for Saint-Hilarion’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
- 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-Hilarion 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-Hilarion sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Hilarion, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Hilarion’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Hilarion
How is Saint-Hilarion’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Hilarion grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Hilarion?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Saint-Hilarion’s buildings lose $0.37 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Hilarion?
8.8% of the 160 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Hilarion topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Saint-Hilarion at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Hilarion’s band is low, with 1.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Saint-Hilarion flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Hilarion (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).