Photo: Pierre Bona · CC BY-SA 3.0Wildfire low, radon 8.2%: how Saint-Jean-Baptiste stands on hazards
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Jean-Baptiste: 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 $0.12 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Saint-Jean-Baptiste a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Jean-Baptiste: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Jean-Baptiste 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-Jean-Baptiste: C
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Saint-Jean-Baptiste with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #147 of 507 in Quebec and #2,094 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Saint-Jean-Baptiste has burned: 0.2% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.002% of the land near Saint-Jean-Baptiste burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Little near Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.4% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.3% 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 513
Saint-Jean-Baptiste ranks 35th of the 513 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.002% a year; Mistissini leads with 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Saint-Jean-Baptiste 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.
No flood study is listed for Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Jean-Baptiste, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Saint-Jean-Baptiste 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Saint-Jean-Baptiste floods.
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-Jean-Baptiste’s costliest hazard: $0.12 a year per $1,000
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-Jean-Baptiste loses $0.12, 4.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Saint-Jean-Baptiste, at $0.12, 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: 23% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
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-Jean-Baptiste’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).
Some radon around Saint-Jean-Baptiste: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Monteregie health region: radon tests
8.2% of tested homes around Saint-Jean-Baptiste 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-Jean-Baptiste, 8.2% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Saint-Jean-Baptiste with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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-Jean-Baptiste 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-Jean-Baptiste
Alerts for Saint-Jean-Baptiste 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. |
Evacuation orders for Saint-Jean-Baptiste come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Jean-Baptiste
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Jean-Baptiste | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Otterburn Park 9,460 · 6.7 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Mont-Saint-Hilaire 19,447 · 7.9 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marie-Madeleine 2,940 · 7.9 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Marieville 11,910 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Damase 2,390 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| McMasterville 6,114 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Otterburn Park (low), still no more than Saint-Jean-Baptiste (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Jean-Baptiste faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Jean-Baptiste 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.
- 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s.
- 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-Jean-Baptiste.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint-Jean-Baptiste takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Is radon a problem in Saint-Jean-Baptiste?
Around Saint-Jean-Baptiste, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Saint-Jean-Baptiste flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Saint-Jean-Baptiste at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Saint-Jean-Baptiste since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Jean-Baptiste?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
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).