Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Mesa County, CO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 37.2 Relatively Low

158,601
Population
9
Departments
22
Stations
33
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
1.14
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
20th highest of 64
Life Safety per 100k
0.72
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
50th highest of 64
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$25.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
13th highest of 64
Property Loss per Resident
$160
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
63rd 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 Mesa County, the largest single contributor is Avalanche, 56% of the life-safety total.

Mesa County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $25.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 64 Colorado counties. Nationally, Mesa County ranks 521st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2212th for life safety per 100k residents, 720th for property loss, and 3059th 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 Mesa 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 Mesa County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

61%
37%
Property (buildings): $25.3M (60.8%)
Life safety: $15.6M (37.3%)
Agriculture: $788K (1.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $41,655,493 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
$8.7M
Lightning
$2.6M
Landslide
$2.2M
Heat Wave
$566K
Earthquake
$502K
Inland Flooding
$385K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$21.4M
Earthquake
$2.3M
Wildfire
$1.4M
Tornado
$95K
Hail
$55K
Winter Weather
$36K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Mesa 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

33%
22%
22%
22%
Career: 33% (3)
Combination: 22% (2)
Volunteer: 22% (2)
Unreported: 22% (2)
Residents per Station
7,209
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
13.9
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Mesa 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 Mesa 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 9 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District 20,865 $26.0M Very High 5
Grand Valley Fire Protection District 19,377 $17.7M Very High 1
Lower Valley Fire Protection District 44,787 $13.0M Relatively High 2
Grand Junction Fire Department 101,366 $9.7M Relatively Low 9
Palisade Fire Department 13,548 $7.7M Very High 1
De Beque Fire Protection District 19,526 $7.5M Very High 1
Glade Park Fire Protection District 4,867 $3.2M Very High 1
Mesa County Fire Authority 4,867 $3.2M Very High 2
Office of Legacy Management Site 19,543 $2.9M Relatively High 0
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

10.7%
Poverty Rate
21.1%
Age 65+
15.3%
Disability Rate
9.9%
Uninsured
39.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
7.9%
Mobile Homes
5.9%
Vacancy Rate
1.9%
Wood Heat
$78,363
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
6
Last 25 Years
Fire
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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