Photo: Municipalité de Wickham · CC BY-SA 4.0Wickham’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 0% of area homes over the radon guideline
Fire has left almost no mark near Wickham: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Wickham a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Wickham’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Wickham: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Wickham faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Wickham grades A− for hazard risk
For Wickham, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #23 of 507 in Quebec and #887 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Wickham has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Wickham’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.000% burned a year, Wickham is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Wickham’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 6.3 km out.
About as much forest grows next to Wickham’s homes (13% within 5 km) as across 25 km (12%).
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
Of the 513 towns in Quebec, 144 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Wickham among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% a year.
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%), Wickham 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 Wickham
Flood studies whose area touches Wickham, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Wickham has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Wickham is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Wickham.
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 Wickham $0.10 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.
Roughly 3.3 times the typical $0.030: Wickham’s $0.10 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; Wickham expects less, $0.10, 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.
Wickham sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 26% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Wickham’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Wickham: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region: radon tests
At 0% over the guideline, the area around Wickham is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Wickham (0%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Wickham shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Wickham; 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 Wickham
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Wickham; 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. |
For fires near Wickham, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Wickham
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wickham | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Théodore-d'Acton 1,650 · 7.7 km | Low | $0.099 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Germain-de-Grantham 5,054 · 11 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Drummondville 85,560 · 13 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Eugène 1,180 · 14 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Acton Vale 7,945 · 14 km | Low | $0.093 | 8.2% | Yes |
| L'Avenir 1,456 · 15 km | Low | $0.061 | 0% | None listed |
Nowhere around Wickham burns more: Saint-Théodore-d'Acton, 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 Wickham faces
Practical steps for Wickham’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
- 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 Wickham’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Wickham takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Wickham’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. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Wickham.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Wickham
Is radon a problem in Wickham?
The area’s survey found 0% of 58 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Wickham.
Does Wickham flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Wickham, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Wickham?
Expected earthquake damage in Wickham comes to $0.10 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Wickham’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Wickham grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Wickham at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Wickham’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) 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).