Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

El Paso County, CO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 38.0 Relatively Low

742,999
Population
28
Departments
116
Stations
167
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
3.59
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
5th highest of 64
Life Safety per 100k
0.48
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
59th highest of 64
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$167.2M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
3rd highest of 64
Property Loss per Resident
$225
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
56th 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 El Paso County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 31% of the life-safety total.

El Paso County carries an expected 4 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $167.2M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 64 Colorado counties. Nationally, El Paso County ranks 139th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2582nd for life safety per 100k residents, 118th for property loss, and 2552nd 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 El Paso 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 El Paso County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

77%
23%
Property (buildings): $167.2M (77.1%)
Life safety: $49.2M (22.7%)
Agriculture: $387K (0.2%)

Total expected annual loss: $216,743,992 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)

Tornado
$15.3M
Inland Flooding
$6.7M
Lightning
$5.9M
Winter Weather
$5.0M
Avalanche
$4.6M
Cold Wave
$3.7M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$98.4M
Wildfire
$39.2M
Hail
$16.3M
Tornado
$10.0M
Earthquake
$1.4M
Strong Wind
$1.1M

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in El Paso 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

29%
46%
25%
Career: 29% (8)
Combination: 46% (13)
Volunteer: 25% (7)
Residents per Station
6,405
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
15.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 28 departments registered in NERIS Public for El Paso 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 El Paso 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 28 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Colorado Springs Fire Department 486,053 $31.2M Relatively Low 38
Falcon Fire Protection District 118,510 $23.8M Relatively Moderate 10
Monument Fire District 60,241 $4.8M Relatively High 6
Ellicott Fire Protection District 36,125 $3.5M Relatively High 3
Palmer Lake Volunteer Fire Department 20,876 $3.3M Very High 1
Fountain Fire Department 51,171 $3.0M Relatively Moderate 3
El Paso County Sheriff's Office, Wildland Fire Division 12,126 $3.0M Very High 1
Security Fire Department 43,173 $2.9M Relatively Moderate 7
Elbert Fire Protection District 26,302 $2.1M Relatively High 3
Hanover Fire Protection District 27,241 $1.9M Relatively Moderate 7
Green Mountain Falls/Chipita Park Fire Department 8,138 $1.9M Relatively High 2
Rye Fire Protection District 23,340 $1.8M Relatively Moderate 2
Usaf Academy Fire & Emergency Services 11,850 $1.8M Relatively High 4
Franktown Fire Protection District 31,081 $1.6M Relatively High 5
Calhan Fire Protection District 15,111 $1.5M Relatively Moderate 2
Manitou Springs Fire Department 4,352 $1.5M Very High 3
Peyton Fire Protection District 17,506 $1.5M Relatively Moderate 2
Black Forest Fire Rescue Protection District 22,754 $1.4M Relatively High 2
Cascade Volunteer Fire Department 3,569 $1.4M Very High 2
Tri-County Fire Protection District 11,267 $1.2M Relatively High 3
Southwestern Highway 115 Fire Protection District 8,266 $1.0M Relatively High 2
Big Sandy Fire Protection District 8,243 $839.5K Relatively Moderate 1
Cimarron Hills Fire Department 15,444 $732.4K Relatively Low 3
Cheyenne Mountain A.F.S. Fire Department 3,434 $712.5K Relatively High 1
Cripple Creek Fire & Emergency Services 5,568 $624.6K Relatively High 1
Schriever Afb Fire Department 10,951 $579.8K Relatively High 0
Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District 4,154 $294.0K Relatively Moderate 1
Woodmen Valley Fire Protection District 1,720 $104.0K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

8.5%
Poverty Rate
14.0%
Age 65+
12.7%
Disability Rate
7.2%
Uninsured
35.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.8%
Mobile Homes
4.4%
Vacancy Rate
0.6%
Wood Heat
$100,059
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
14
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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