Photo: Mario Hains · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Saint-Zacharie: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 13% of tested homes
Wildfire barely registers for Saint-Zacharie, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Saint-Zacharie is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.051 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Saint-Zacharie a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Zacharie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Zacharie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Zacharie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Zacharie grades C− for hazard risk
For Saint-Zacharie, 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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Zacharie: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Zacharie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Saint-Zacharie at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Saint-Zacharie’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 19 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Saint-Zacharie: 75% within 5 km, 70% 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-Zacharie 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Saint-Zacharie is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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-Zacharie
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Zacharie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Saint-Zacharie, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Saint-Zacharie.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Saint-Zacharie to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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-Zacharie: $0.051 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.
At $0.051 per $1,000, Saint-Zacharie’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Saint-Zacharie’s $0.051 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Saint-Zacharie.
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 model counts damage to Saint-Zacharie’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
13% of homes tested around Saint-Zacharie are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Saint-Zacharie’s area has 13%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Zacharie, 13% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 0.6% over 600, against a median of 8.2% in Quebec.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Saint-Zacharie sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Saint-Zacharie only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Zacharie
Alerts for Saint-Zacharie 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-Zacharie 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)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Zacharie
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Zacharie | Low | $0.051 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Côme--Linière 3,435 · 12 km | Low | $0.050 | 13% | Yes |
| Saint-Prosper 4,042 · 14 km | Low | $0.054 | 13% | None listed |
Saint-Zacharie’s low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Côme--Linière is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Zacharie faces
Practical steps for Saint-Zacharie’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Saint-Zacharie’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Zacharie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Zacharie’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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-Zacharie.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Zacharie
How is Saint-Zacharie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Zacharie grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Saint-Zacharie at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Zacharie’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2020) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Zacharie?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Zacharie comes to $0.051 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Zacharie?
The area’s survey found 13% of 175 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Zacharie.
Does Saint-Zacharie flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Zacharie, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).