Photo: Veillg1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Narcisse’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 0% of area homes over the radon guideline
Fire seldom reaches Saint-Narcisse: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.002% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.11 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Narcisse grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Saint-Narcisse’s hazards
For Saint-Narcisse, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Narcisse 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-Narcisse: B+
Two inputs always count for Saint-Narcisse, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 58 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-Narcisse has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Narcisse’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.002% a year keeps Saint-Narcisse in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The ring nearest Saint-Narcisse is the most wooded: 38% forest fuel within 5 km against 32% 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
The land around Saint-Narcisse burns at 0.002% a year, the 35th highest rate of 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it 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.
Some fire is mapped around Saint-Narcisse, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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-Narcisse
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Narcisse, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Saint-Narcisse has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Saint-Narcisse 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-Narcisse.
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-Narcisse’s costliest hazard: $0.11 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-Narcisse loses $0.11, 3.7 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Saint-Narcisse expects less, $0.11, and La Pocatière the most, $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-Narcisse sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 25% 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Saint-Narcisse 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).
0% of homes tested around Saint-Narcisse are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Saint-Narcisse’s area has fewer, 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Saint-Narcisse (0%) than in 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.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Saint-Narcisse, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
Whatever Saint-Narcisse’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Where to get warnings in Saint-Narcisse
Alerts for Saint-Narcisse 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Saint-Narcisse to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Narcisse
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Narcisse | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Stanislas 1,040 · 6.7 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan 1,137 · 8.0 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Maurice 3,804 · 13 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Hérouxville 1,570 · 16 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Champlain 1,957 · 16 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel 6,613 · 19 km | Low | $0.098 | 0% | None listed |
Hérouxville burns a little more than Saint-Narcisse, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Narcisse faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Narcisse 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
- 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-Narcisse.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Saint-Narcisse’s included.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Saint-Narcisse.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Narcisse is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Narcisse
Is Saint-Narcisse at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Saint-Narcisse since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Saint-Narcisse’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Narcisse grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Narcisse?
Around Saint-Narcisse, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Saint-Narcisse flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Saint-Narcisse’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Narcisse?
About $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Narcisse.
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).