Photo: Cantons-de-l'Est · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Saint-Urbain-Premier: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.2% of tested homes
Around Saint-Urbain-Premier, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.19 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Urbain-Premier grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Urbain-Premier’s hazards
For Saint-Urbain-Premier, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Urbain-Premier faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Urbain-Premier grades C− for hazard risk
For Saint-Urbain-Premier, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Saint-Urbain-Premier: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Urbain-Premier’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Saint-Urbain-Premier burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Saint-Urbain-Premier’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 15 km out.
Forest fuel is scarce around Saint-Urbain-Premier: 3.2% of the land within 5 km, 4.8% 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
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Saint-Urbain-Premier ranks 136th of 514, at 0.001% a year.
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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Urbain-Premier burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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-Urbain-Premier
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Urbain-Premier, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Saint-Urbain-Premier, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Saint-Urbain-Premier has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Saint-Urbain-Premier’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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-Urbain-Premier’s costliest hazard: $0.19 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.
Saint-Urbain-Premier’s $0.19 is about 6.2 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
Above the middle in Quebec: Saint-Urbain-Premier’s $0.19 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière highest 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.
Saint-Urbain-Premier sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 13% 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-Urbain-Premier 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).
Some radon around Saint-Urbain-Premier: 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.
Near the middle for radon: Saint-Urbain-Premier’s area 8.2%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Monteregie health region, with Saint-Urbain-Premier one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Saint-Urbain-Premier is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 8.2%, beside a median of 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Saint-Urbain-Premier, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Saint-Urbain-Premier, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint-Urbain-Premier
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Urbain-Premier; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Saint-Urbain-Premier come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Urbain-Premier
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Urbain-Premier | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Sainte-Martine 5,884 · 6.0 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Isidore 2,889 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Rémi 9,557 · 9.1 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Mercier 16,036 · 10 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Très-Saint-Sacrement 1,223 · 10 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Clotilde 3,297 · 11 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | None listed |
The fire record around Sainte-Martine is a touch heavier than Saint-Urbain-Premier’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Urbain-Premier faces
Practical steps for Saint-Urbain-Premier’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?
- 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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Urbain-Premier’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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-Urbain-Premier.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Urbain-Premier is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Urbain-Premier, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Urbain-Premier
How is Saint-Urbain-Premier’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Urbain-Premier C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Urbain-Premier?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Urbain-Premier topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Urbain-Premier?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Urbain-Premier comes to $0.19 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Saint-Urbain-Premier flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Urbain-Premier (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Saint-Urbain-Premier at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Urbain-Premier’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).