Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Saint-Victor: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 13% of tested homes
Wildfire isn’t Saint-Victor’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). NRCan expects $0.043 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Saint-Victor, near the typical $0.030. Saint-Victor grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Victor’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Victor: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Victor 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-Victor: C
For Saint-Victor, 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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Saint-Victor: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Saint-Victor’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Saint-Victor burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Saint-Victor’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 16 km off.
Forest fuel covers 42% of the land close to Saint-Victor and 51% across 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
Little or nothing burns around Saint-Victor in a typical year; 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec share that, and Mistissini leads 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Saint-Victor, 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-Victor
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Victor: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Saint-Victor on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Saint-Victor 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-Victor’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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Saint-Victor: $0.043 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Saint-Victor’s ground: $0.043 against a typical $0.030, 1.4 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Saint-Victor expects less, $0.043, 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.
Middle of the pack: 36% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Saint-Victor.
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-Victor’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).
Radon runs high around Saint-Victor: 13% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 13% over the guideline, the area around Saint-Victor beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region as a whole, not for Saint-Victor alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Saint-Victor than in most towns in Quebec: 13% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 0.6% 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-Victor, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Saint-Victor; 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-Victor
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Victor; 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-Victor, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint-Victor’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-Victor | Low | $0.043 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Éphrem-de-Beauce 2,575 · 10 km | Low | $0.046 | 13% | Yes |
| Beauceville 6,228 · 13 km | Low | $0.048 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Benoît-Labre 1,655 · 13 km | Low | $0.052 | 13% | None listed |
| Tring-Jonction 1,626 · 15 km | Low | $0.060 | 13% | None listed |
| Notre-Dame-des-Pins 1,935 · 16 km | Low | $0.044 | 13% | None listed |
| East Broughton 2,311 · 16 km | Low | $0.042 | 13% | None listed |
Saint-Éphrem-de-Beauce (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint-Victor’s neighbours, and Saint-Victor (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Victor faces
Practical steps for Saint-Victor’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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Victor’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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-Victor floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Victor’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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-Victor sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Victor
Is radon a problem in Saint-Victor?
13% of the 175 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Victor topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Saint-Victor flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Victor (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Victor?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Saint-Victor $0.043 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Saint-Victor’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Victor C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Saint-Victor at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Victor’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.
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).