Photo: Ymblanter · CC BY-SA 4.0On hazards, Trois-Pistoles comes out behind 87% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Trois-Pistoles: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.087 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 14% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Trois-Pistoles grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Trois-Pistoles’s hazards
For Trois-Pistoles, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Trois-Pistoles faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Trois-Pistoles grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Trois-Pistoles’ grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #438 of 507 in Quebec and #2,431 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Trois-Pistoles: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Trois-Pistoles’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Trois-Pistoles at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Trois-Pistoles: 26% of the land within 5 km, 50% 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
Little or nothing burns around Trois-Pistoles in a typical year; 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec share that, and Mistissini leads 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%), Trois-Pistoles 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 Trois-Pistoles
Flood studies whose area touches Trois-Pistoles, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Trois-Pistoles on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Trois-Pistoles has none.
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 Trois-Pistoles 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.”
High seismic risk in Trois-Pistoles: $0.087 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Trois-Pistoles’ $0.087 is about 2.9 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
Trois-Pistoles’ $0.087 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Trois-Pistoles.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Trois-Pistoles.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Trois-Pistoles: 14% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Trois-Pistoles’ survey area reads 14% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Trois-Pistoles, 14% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.8% 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Trois-Pistoles, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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 low area share in Trois-Pistoles doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region
Where to get warnings in Trois-Pistoles
Alerts for Trois-Pistoles 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. |
Evacuation orders for Trois-Pistoles come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Trois-Pistoles
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trois-Pistoles | Low | $0.087 | 14% | None listed |
| Notre-Dame-des-Neiges 1,146 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.10 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Jean-de-Dieu 1,697 · 16 km | Low | $0.11 | 14% | None listed |
| L'Isle-Verte 1,427 · 17 km | Low | $0.15 | 14% | None listed |
The fire record around L'Isle-Verte is a touch heavier than Trois-Pistoles’, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Trois-Pistoles faces
Practical steps for Trois-Pistoles’ 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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Trois-Pistoles’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Trois-Pistoles.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Trois-Pistoles takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Trois-Pistoles, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Trois-Pistoles
How is Trois-Pistoles’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Trois-Pistoles grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Trois-Pistoles?
Expected earthquake damage in Trois-Pistoles comes to $0.087 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Trois-Pistoles flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Trois-Pistoles (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Trois-Pistoles at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Trois-Pistoles’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Trois-Pistoles?
14% of the 171 homes Health Canada tested around Trois-Pistoles topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).