Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Chaffee County, CO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 87.3 Very High

20,178
Population
8
Departments
30
Stations
6
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
1.50
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
17th highest of 64
Life Safety per 100k
7.42
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
13th highest of 64
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$13.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
21st highest of 64
Property Loss per Resident
$658
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
16th highest of 64

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 Chaffee County, the largest single contributor is Avalanche, 90% of the life-safety total.

Chaffee County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $13.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 64 Colorado counties. Nationally, Chaffee County ranks 392nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 74th for life safety per 100k residents, 1241st for property loss, and 475th 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 Chaffee 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 Chaffee County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

39%
61%
Property (buildings): $13.3M (39.3%)
Life safety: $20.5M (60.6%)
Agriculture: $58K (0.2%)

Total expected annual loss: $33,843,789 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.

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)

Avalanche
$18.5M
Lightning
$1.2M
Landslide
$489K
Inland Flooding
$132K
Tornado
$48K
Winter Weather
$45K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$12.6M
Wildfire
$224K
Hail
$188K
Earthquake
$154K
Tornado
$77K
Strong Wind
$13K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Chaffee 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

62%
38%
Combination: 62% (5)
Volunteer: 38% (3)
Residents per Station
673
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
148.7
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 8 departments registered in NERIS Public for Chaffee County, CO. 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 Chaffee 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 8 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Pitkin Fire Department 16,403 $30.9M Very High 1
Sargents Volunteer Fire Department 16,403 $30.9M Very High 1
Taylor Canyon Volunteer Fire Department 16,403 $30.9M Very High 1
Chaffee County Fire Protection District 19,200 $17.9M Very High 12
Buena Vista Fire Department 6,694 $5.3M Relatively High 1
Salida Fire Department 6,000 $5.1M Very High 3
Leadville Lake County Fire Rescue 7,380 $2.6M Relatively Low 1
Hartsel Fire Protection District 4,842 $592.8K Relatively Moderate 10
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

8.3%
Poverty Rate
26.3%
Age 65+
11.4%
Disability Rate
6.5%
Uninsured
37.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
5.4%
Mobile Homes
14.1%
Vacancy Rate
7.8%
Wood Heat
$83,976
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

2
Last 10 Years
5
Last 25 Years
Biological
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo