Photo: Michael Santschi · Public domainWildfire low, radon 8.2%: how Sainte-Sabine stands on hazards
Wildfire isn’t Sainte-Sabine’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.13 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Sainte-Sabine a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sainte-Sabine’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sainte-Sabine: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sainte-Sabine faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sainte-Sabine grades C for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Sainte-Sabine’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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-Sabine: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sainte-Sabine’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Sainte-Sabine burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Sainte-Sabine’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 15 km away.
Only 4.9% of the land within 25 km of Sainte-Sabine is forest fuel, and 4.7% close in.
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-Sabine, 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Sainte-Sabine, 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 Sainte-Sabine
Flood studies whose area touches Sainte-Sabine, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Sainte-Sabine has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Sainte-Sabine has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Sainte-Sabine.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Sainte-Sabine $0.13 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Sainte-Sabine’s $0.13 is about 4.5 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
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Sainte-Sabine’s $0.13 against $0.14; La Pocatière reaches $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 22% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Sainte-Sabine.
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-Sabine’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 about average around Sainte-Sabine: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Monteregie health region
The survey area of Sainte-Sabine reads 8.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Sainte-Sabine’s area, at 8.2%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Sainte-Sabine, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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-Sabine; 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-Sabine
Alerts for Sainte-Sabine 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 Sainte-Sabine 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)
How Sainte-Sabine’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Sabine | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Farnham 11,315 · 5.3 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Alexandre 2,685 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Sainte-Brigide-d'Iberville 1,540 · 9.6 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Bedford 2,845 · 14 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Ange-Gardien 3,100 · 14 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Mont-Saint-Grégoire 3,158 · 16 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
Sainte-Brigide-d'Iberville burns a little more than Sainte-Sabine, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sainte-Sabine faces
Practical steps for Sainte-Sabine’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
- 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 Sainte-Sabine sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Sainte-Sabine’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. 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 Sainte-Sabine floods.
- 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 Sainte-Sabine’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Sabine
Is Sainte-Sabine at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Sainte-Sabine’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.
Does Sainte-Sabine flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Sainte-Sabine (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Sabine?
Expected earthquake damage in Sainte-Sabine comes to $0.13 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Sabine?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Sainte-Sabine topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Sainte-Sabine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sainte-Sabine grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the 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).