Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Monterey County, CA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 78.1 Relatively High

437,613
Population
26
Departments
99
Stations
104
Census Tracts

Natural Hazard Loss Profile

Expected annual loss across the 18 natural hazards in FEMA's National Risk Index. Life safety is expressed in fatality-equivalents, combining expected deaths and injuries. Property loss counts building damage only, separate from agriculture.

Natural Hazard Life Safety
4.35
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
19th highest of 58
Life Safety per 100k
0.99
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
28th highest of 58
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$258.8M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
18th highest of 58
Property Loss per Resident
$591
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
39th highest of 58

These figures cover natural hazards only. Structure fire, EMS, and motor vehicle incidents are not included in the National Risk Index and are not counted here, so this is not an all-cause life safety measure. For Monterey County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 86% of the life-safety total.

Monterey County carries an expected 4 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $258.8M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 58 California counties. Nationally, Monterey County ranks 120th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1746th for life safety per 100k residents, 58th for property loss, and 609th for property loss per resident. Computed from census tract data covering every resident, independent of fire department boundaries.

Add fire mortality, cause, and loss

Natural hazard exposure is one half of the picture. The other half is what your departments run on: fire deaths and injuries, cause of ignition, dollar loss per incident. That comes from NERIS incident reporting, and it grows as departments serving Monterey County enroll. Our Regional tier brings it together across your jurisdiction, with participating departments, alongside response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

Talk to us about Monterey County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

64%
15%
21%
Property (buildings): $258.8M (64.3%)
Life safety: $59.5M (14.8%)
Agriculture: $84.0M (20.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $402,384,191 per year. Life safety is shown here in dollars, at FEMA's $13.7M value of statistical life, so the three shares sum to the total.

Agriculture is 21% of expected annual loss in Monterey County, so total loss overstates property loss here. The property figure above counts building loss only.

Hazards Ranked Two Ways

The hazard that threatens people is often not the hazard that destroys buildings. Both columns cover the same 18 hazards over the same year.

By life-safety loss ($/yr)

Earthquake
$51.4M
Heat Wave
$4.8M
Landslide
$1.6M
Inland Flooding
$728K
Wildfire
$581K
Lightning
$329K

By property loss ($/yr)

Earthquake
$130.4M
Inland Flooding
$107.3M
Wildfire
$16.5M
Landslide
$3.1M
Tsunami
$712K
Coastal Flooding
$421K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Monterey County. Gray tracts have no modeled loss or no resident population. Per-resident figures on this map use the National Risk Index 2020 tract population.

Fire Service Profile

42%
35%
23%
Career: 42% (11)
Combination: 35% (9)
Volunteer: 23% (6)
Residents per Station
4,420
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
22.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 26 departments registered in NERIS Public for Monterey County, CA. Departments that have not registered are not counted. Station coverage divides census population by registered stations; department service areas overlap, so their populations are not summed.

Department Rankings

Fire and EMS departments serving Monterey County. Click column headers to sort.

NRI Rating is from FEMA's National Risk Index, which measures community risk across 18 natural hazards using expected annual losses, social vulnerability, and community resilience. Life-Safety Loss uses FEMA's Value of Statistical Life ($13.7M per expected fatality) to estimate annual risk to human life.

Department boundaries and station counts are self-reported through NERIS Public and may not reflect current service areas. Population and Life-Safety Loss reflect each department's full jurisdiction. County-level risk metrics are computed from census tract data and are not affected by boundary accuracy. See full methodology.

Showing 26 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Correctional Training Facility Fire Department 219,635 $29.1M Very High 1
California Forestry 214,866 $28.6M Very High 10
Salinas Fire Department 152,402 $24.1M Very High 12
Hollister Fire Department 96,047 $20.0M Very High 4
San Benito County Fire Department 96,047 $20.0M Very High 1
Santa Cruz County Fire Department 58,374 $16.3M Very High 5
North County Fire Protection District Of Monterey County 161,117 $15.3M Very High 6
Monterey County Regional Fire District 78,220 $10.6M Very High 13
Pajaro Valley Fire Protection District 21,571 $7.6M Very High 1
Aromas Tri-County Fire Protection District 22,393 $5.8M Very High 1
South Monterey County Fire Protection District 27,516 $5.4M Very High 3
Monterey Fire Department 46,314 $3.8M Relatively Moderate 11
City Of Seaside Fire Department 31,346 $3.2M Relatively Moderate 2
Greenfield Fire Department 29,996 $2.9M Very High 2
Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade 6,692 $2.7M Very High 5
Fort Hunter Liggett Army Fire & Emergency Services 6,692 $2.7M Very High 2
Mission Soledad Rural Fire Protection District 37,794 $2.7M Relatively High 0
King City Fire Department 16,577 $2.4M Very High 1
City Of Soledad Fire Department 28,039 $2.2M Relatively High 1
Cachagua Fire Protection District 11,905 $2.1M Very High 3
Gonzales Volunteer Fire Department 13,483 $2.0M Very High 1
Marina Fire Department 16,214 $1.9M Relatively High 8
Cypress Fire Protection District 10,168 $898.1K Very High 3
Carmel Highlands Fire Protection District 3,766 $560.9K Very High 1
Mid-Coast Fire Brigade 1,741 $401.3K Relatively High 1
Pebble Beach Fire Department 3,515 $237.5K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

12.7%
Poverty Rate
14.9%
Age 65+
9.3%
Disability Rate
9.6%
Uninsured
58.3%
Pre-1980 Housing
4.0%
Mobile Homes
8.9%
Vacancy Rate
1.5%
Wood Heat
$96,982
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

14
Last 10 Years
19
Last 25 Years
Flood
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

Our Regional tier gives county fire authorities and state fire marshals rollup dashboards across all departments in your jurisdiction: response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

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