Photo: Nicogag · CC BY-SA 3.0Wildfire low, radon 13%: how Sainte-Marguerite stands on hazards
Fire has left almost no mark near Sainte-Marguerite: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.062 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Sainte-Marguerite a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sainte-Marguerite’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sainte-Marguerite: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sainte-Marguerite faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Sainte-Marguerite: C−
Seismic risk and radon set Sainte-Marguerite’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Few fires near Sainte-Marguerite: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Sainte-Marguerite’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Sainte-Marguerite’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Sainte-Marguerite’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 25 km away.
There is forest near Sainte-Marguerite’s homes (28% within 5 km) and more of it further out (33% 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
Mistissini has the highest burn rate in Quebec, 0.31% a year; around Sainte-Marguerite, as around 145 of the 514 towns, it rounds to zero.
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-Marguerite 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.
No flood study is listed for Sainte-Marguerite
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sainte-Marguerite: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Sainte-Marguerite, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Sainte-Marguerite; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Sainte-Marguerite 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.”
Shaking is Sainte-Marguerite’s costliest hazard: $0.062 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 2.1 times the typical $0.030: Sainte-Marguerite’s $0.062 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Sainte-Marguerite expects less, $0.062, 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 29% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Sainte-Marguerite.
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 Sainte-Marguerite’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 Sainte-Marguerite are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region
At 13% over the guideline, the area around Sainte-Marguerite beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Sainte-Marguerite, 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.
Sainte-Marguerite 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.
The survey sampled homes around Sainte-Marguerite; 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 Sainte-Marguerite
Alerts for Sainte-Marguerite 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Sainte-Marguerite to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Sainte-Marguerite
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Marguerite | Low | $0.062 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Hénédine 1,550 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.078 | 13% | None listed |
| Frampton 1,374 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.053 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Claire 3,724 · 10 km | Low | $0.080 | 13% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marie 13,873 · 11 km | Low | $0.065 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Malachie 1,755 · 12 km | Low | $0.055 | 13% | None listed |
| Scott 2,938 · 12 km | Low | $0.098 | 13% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Sainte-Marguerite has the most fire on record (low); Sainte-Hénédine follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sainte-Marguerite faces
Practical steps for Sainte-Marguerite’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 Sainte-Marguerite’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Sainte-Marguerite.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sainte-Marguerite’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Sainte-Marguerite takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Marguerite
How is Sainte-Marguerite’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sainte-Marguerite’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Marguerite?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Sainte-Marguerite’s buildings lose $0.062 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Sainte-Marguerite flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Sainte-Marguerite, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Marguerite?
The area’s survey found 13% of 175 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Sainte-Marguerite.
Is Sainte-Marguerite at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Sainte-Marguerite’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
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).