Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Yamachiche: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Yamachiche: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.002% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Yamachiche grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Yamachiche’s hazards
For Yamachiche, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Yamachiche faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Yamachiche: B+
The grade weighs Yamachiche’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #40 of 507 in Quebec and #1,097 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 58 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Yamachiche: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Yamachiche’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Yamachiche burns at 0.002% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Yamachiche’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 13 km off.
The nearer ring around Yamachiche is less wooded (8.4% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (17%).
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
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Yamachiche, at 0.002%, ranks 35th of 513.
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.
Yamachiche is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Yamachiche (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Yamachiche: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Yamachiche the inventory points to Gouvernement du Québec’s 1996 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Yamachiche is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
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 Yamachiche.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Yamachiche $0.14 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Yamachiche loses $0.14, 4.5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Yamachiche at $0.14 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top at $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.
22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Yamachiche, which places it in the upper third.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Yamachiche is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
0% of homes tested around Yamachiche are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region: radon tests
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Yamachiche’s area has fewer, 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Yamachiche has fewer high tests: 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Yamachiche is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Yamachiche, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Yamachiche
Alerts for Yamachiche 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 Yamachiche 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 Yamachiche
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yamachiche | Low | $0.14 | 0% | Yes |
| Louiseville 7,570 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Barnabé 1,234 · 10 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Maskinongé 2,457 · 15 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Étienne-des-Grès 4,675 · 17 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Sainte-Ursule 1,363 · 18 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Charette 1,178 · 19 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Yamachiche has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Barnabé follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Yamachiche faces
What to do about the hazards Yamachiche faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Yamachiche’s included.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Yamachiche is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Yamachiche.
- 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 Yamachiche.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Yamachiche
Does Yamachiche flood?
There is flood mapping for Yamachiche on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Yamachiche at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Yamachiche since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Yamachiche?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Yamachiche’s buildings lose $0.14 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Yamachiche?
Around Yamachiche, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Yamachiche’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Yamachiche B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).