Photo: Laceoflight Louis-Philippe Rousselle-Brosseau · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Saint-Placide comes out behind 87% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Saint-Placide, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.17 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Saint-Placide a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Placide’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Placide: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Placide 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-Placide: D
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint-Placide’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Saint-Placide: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Placide’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Saint-Placide each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 10 km from Saint-Placide’s homes since 1986.
The forest starts beyond town: 2.7% of the land within 5 km of Saint-Placide’s homes is forest fuel, against 6.5% 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
Near-zero burning puts Saint-Placide with 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Saint-Placide, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal has mapped flooding for Saint-Placide (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Placide, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Saint-Placide, Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal’s from 2008, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montréal-Argenteuil-Deux-Montagnes-Vaudreuil-Soulanges | Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal | 2008 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Saint-Placide apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Saint-Placide’s homes are at risk.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Saint-Placide: $0.17 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-Placide’s $0.17 is about 5.6 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
Typical for its province: Saint-Placide at $0.17 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top 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-Placide.
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).
The loss is to Saint-Placide’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
10% of homes tested around Saint-Placide are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Saint-Placide, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Laurentides health region as a whole, not for Saint-Placide alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Saint-Placide than in most towns in Quebec: 10% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 1.3% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Placide, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Saint-Placide; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Placide
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Placide; 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-Placide, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Placide
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Placide | Low | $0.17 | 10% | Yes |
| Rigaud 8,187 · 8.8 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Kanesatake 1,872 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.10 | 10% | Yes |
| Hudson 5,533 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-André-d'Argenteuil 3,300 · 12 km | Low | $0.14 | 10% | Yes |
| Oka 4,312 · 12 km | Low | $0.13 | 10% | Yes |
| Saint-Lazare 22,895 · 15 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | None listed |
Hudson burns a little more than Saint-Placide, 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-Placide faces
Practical steps for Saint-Placide’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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-Placide floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Placide’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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-Placide sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Placide’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Placide
Does Saint-Placide flood?
Saint-Placide’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Saint-Placide at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Placide’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.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Placide?
About $0.17 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Placide.
How is Saint-Placide’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Placide grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Placide?
10% of the 78 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Placide 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).