Photo: Geai bleu · CC BY 3.0Wildfire low, radon 3.9%: how Saint-Jacques stands on hazards
Little of the land around Saint-Jacques has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.16 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Saint-Jacques a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Jacques’s hazards
For Saint-Jacques, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Jacques 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-Jacques: B−
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint-Jacques’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #99 of 507 in Quebec and #1,724 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 77 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Jacques has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Jacques’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.001% of the land near Saint-Jacques burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
12% of the land within 25 km of Saint-Jacques is forest fuel, yet only 4.6% within 5 km of its homes.
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
At 0.001% a year, Saint-Jacques ranks 136th of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini leads 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Saint-Jacques among them, though its rate is above zero; 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-Jacques
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Jacques, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Saint-Jacques, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Saint-Jacques is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Saint-Jacques.
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-Jacques: $0.16 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.
Saint-Jacques’ $0.16 is about 5.4 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
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Saint-Jacques, at $0.16, is right beside it, and La Pocatière tops the list 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: 14% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Jacques.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Saint-Jacques.
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-Jacques: 3.9% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A lower share than most: 3.9% of tested homes around Saint-Jacques, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Saint-Jacques than in most towns in Quebec: 3.9% against 8.2%.
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-Jacques 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.
A low area share in Saint-Jacques doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Lanaudiere health region
Where to get warnings in Saint-Jacques
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Jacques; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Saint-Jacques, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Jacques
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Jacques | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Liguori 2,268 · 5.0 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Alexis 1,462 · 5.8 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marie-Salomé 1,296 · 6.9 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Crabtree 4,237 · 7.4 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Esprit 2,313 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Sainte-Julienne 12,990 · 10 km | Low | $0.11 | 3.9% | None listed |
Saint-Jacques’ low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Liguori is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Jacques faces
Practical steps for Saint-Jacques’ 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
- 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-Jacques sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Jacques, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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-Jacques floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Jacques’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Jacques
How is Saint-Jacques’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Jacques grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Saint-Jacques flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Jacques (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Saint-Jacques at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Jacques’ band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Jacques?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Jacques comes to $0.16 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Jacques?
3.9% of the 77 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Jacques topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).