Photo: Judicieux · CC BY-SA 4.0Sainte-Hénédine’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 13% of area homes over the radon guideline
Around Sainte-Hénédine, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.078 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Sainte-Hénédine grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Sainte-Hénédine’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sainte-Hénédine: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sainte-Hénédine faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sainte-Hénédine grades C− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Sainte-Hénédine, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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 Sainte-Hénédine: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Sainte-Hénédine’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Sainte-Hénédine burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Sainte-Hénédine’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 20 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Sainte-Hénédine: 9% of the land within 5 km, 29% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Sainte-Hénédine, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Sainte-Hénédine is among the many where the yearly burn rate 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 Sainte-Hénédine
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sainte-Hénédine: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Sainte-Hénédine has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Sainte-Hénédine.
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 Sainte-Hénédine’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.”
Shaking is Sainte-Hénédine’s costliest hazard: $0.078 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.078 per $1,000, Sainte-Hénédine carries roughly 2.6 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Sainte-Hénédine, at $0.078, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Sainte-Hénédine sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 28% 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).
The loss is to Sainte-Hénédine’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 Sainte-Hénédine: 13% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Sainte-Hénédine’s area, at 13%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Sainte-Hénédine (13%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.6% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Sainte-Hénédine is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Sainte-Hénédine can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region)
Weather and fire alerts for Sainte-Hénédine
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sainte-Hénédine; 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 Sainte-Hénédine 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 Sainte-Hénédine
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Hénédine | Low | $0.078 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marguerite 1,297 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.062 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Anselme 4,534 · 7.4 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | Yes |
| Sainte-Claire 3,724 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.080 | 13% | Yes |
| Saint-Isidore 3,550 · 10 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | None listed |
| Scott 2,938 · 11 km | Low | $0.098 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marie 13,873 · 14 km | Low | $0.065 | 13% | None listed |
Nowhere around Sainte-Hénédine burns more: Sainte-Marguerite, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sainte-Hénédine faces
What to do about the hazards Sainte-Hénédine 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.
- 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 Sainte-Hénédine’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Sainte-Hénédine without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Sainte-Hénédine until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sainte-Hénédine’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Hénédine
How is Sainte-Hénédine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sainte-Hénédine grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Hénédine?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Sainte-Hénédine’s buildings lose $0.078 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Hénédine?
In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of 175 homes tested in Sainte-Hénédine’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Sainte-Hénédine flood?
Nothing is listed for Sainte-Hénédine on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Sainte-Hénédine at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Sainte-Hénédine has burned since 1986, the last in 2018, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).