Photo: Cantons-de-l'Est · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 13%: how Saint-Malachie stands on hazards
Fire has left almost no mark near Saint-Malachie: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Saint-Malachie is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.055 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Saint-Malachie a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Malachie’s hazards
For Saint-Malachie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Malachie 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-Malachie: C−
For Saint-Malachie, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Few fires near Saint-Malachie: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Saint-Malachie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Saint-Malachie burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 20 km from Saint-Malachie’s homes, none within 5 km.
The ring nearest Saint-Malachie is the most wooded: 54% forest fuel within 5 km against 49% 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
Among the 514 towns in Quebec, Mistissini burns fastest (0.31% a year); Saint-Malachie is with the 145 near zero.
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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Saint-Malachie, burning rounds to zero.
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-Malachie
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Malachie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Saint-Malachie, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Saint-Malachie has none.
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-Malachie.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Saint-Malachie: $0.055 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.055 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Saint-Malachie is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Saint-Malachie, at $0.055, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Saint-Malachie sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 30% are 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Saint-Malachie.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Saint-Malachie: 13% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region
Saint-Malachie’s survey area reads 13% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Saint-Malachie (13%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.6% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Saint-Malachie, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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-Malachie’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-Malachie
Alerts for Saint-Malachie 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-Malachie 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)
How Saint-Malachie’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-Malachie | Low | $0.055 | 13% | None listed |
| Frampton 1,374 · 6.3 km | Low | $0.053 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Léon-de-Standon 1,033 · 11 km | Low | $0.056 | 13% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marguerite 1,297 · 12 km | Low | $0.062 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Claire 3,724 · 12 km | Low | $0.080 | 13% | Yes |
| Saint-Damien-de-Buckland 1,840 · 14 km | Low | $0.071 | 13% | None listed |
| Saints-Anges 1,364 · 14 km | Low | $0.058 | 13% | None listed |
Frampton (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint-Malachie’s neighbours, and Saint-Malachie (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Malachie faces
Practical steps for Saint-Malachie’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Malachie, 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-Malachie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Malachie 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-Malachie until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Malachie
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Malachie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Saint-Malachie $0.055 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Malachie?
13% of the 175 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Malachie topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Saint-Malachie at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Malachie’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Saint-Malachie flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Malachie (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Saint-Malachie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Malachie’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).