Photo: Robert Garry · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire moderate, radon 4.7%: how Sept-Îles stands on hazards
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Sept-Îles: 2.6% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.07% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Seismic risk in Sept-Îles sits near the middle: $0.050 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Sept-Îles grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Sept-Îles’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sept-Îles: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sept-Îles faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sept-Îles grades B+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Sept-Îles, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #43 of 507 in Quebec and #1,375 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Some fire around Sept-Îles: 2.6% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sept-Îles’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Sept-Îles is 0.07%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Forest thickens with distance from Sept-Îles: 70% of the land within 5 km, 83% 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 513
Sept-Îles ranks 7th of the 513 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.07% a year; Mistissini leads with 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.
Only 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with Sept-Îles, and 2.1% sit above it.
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 Sept-Îles
Flood studies whose area touches Sept-Îles, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Sept-Îles, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Sept-Îles 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 Sept-Îles.
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 Sept-Îles: $0.050 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.
Nothing unusual about Sept-Îles’ ground: $0.050 against a typical $0.030, 1.7 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Sept-Îles’ $0.050 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under La Pocatière’s $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.
Sept-Îles sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 31% 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 model counts damage to Sept-Îles’ 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).
Some radon around Sept-Îles: 4.7% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Sept-Îles, 4.7% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Cote-Nord health region as a whole, not for Sept-Îles alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Sept-Îles has fewer high tests: 4.7%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Sept-Îles; 63% sit 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.
One home in Sept-Îles can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Sept-Îles
Alerts for Sept-Îles 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 Sept-Îles 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 Sept-Îles’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept-Îles | Moderate | $0.050 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Uashat 27 1,694 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.070 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Maliotenam 1,683 · 13 km | Moderate | $0.045 | 4.7% | None listed |
The fire record around Maliotenam is a touch heavier than Sept-Îles’, but the band is the same: moderate (here moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sept-Îles faces
What to do about the hazards Sept-Îles faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- 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 Sept-Îles’.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sept-Îles is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Sept-Îles.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Sept-Îles’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sept-Îles
Is radon a problem in Sept-Îles?
Around Sept-Îles, 107 survey homes were tested and 4.7% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sept-Îles?
About $0.050 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Sept-Îles.
Does Sept-Îles flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Sept-Îles’ flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Sept-Îles at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 2.6% of the land around Sept-Îles since 1986 (last in 2025); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Sept-Îles’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sept-Îles grades B+ 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).