Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Washington County, CO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 76.1 Relatively High

4,831
Population
6
Departments
6
Stations
2
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
0.08
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
52nd highest of 64
Life Safety per 100k
1.70
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
31st highest of 64
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$2.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
50th highest of 64
Property Loss per Resident
$480
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
30th 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 Washington County, the largest single contributor is Strong Wind, 46% of the life-safety total.

Washington County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $2.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 64 Colorado counties. Nationally, Washington County ranks 2748th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 828th for life safety per 100k residents, 2866th for property loss, and 929th 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 Washington 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 Washington County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

53%
26%
21%
Property (buildings): $2.3M (53.4%)
Life safety: $1.1M (25.9%)
Agriculture: $900K (20.7%)

Total expected annual loss: $4,348,037 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 Washington 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)

Strong Wind
$519K
Cold Wave
$414K
Tornado
$75K
Winter Weather
$29K
Inland Flooding
$27K
Lightning
$21K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$1.5M
Tornado
$390K
Hail
$229K
Strong Wind
$77K
Wildfire
$68K
Earthquake
$25K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Washington 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

17%
83%
Combination: 17% (1)
Volunteer: 83% (5)
Residents per Station
805
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
124.2
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 6 departments registered in NERIS Public for Washington 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 Washington 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 6 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Sterling Fire Department 20,892 $6.2M Very High 1
Yuma Volunteer Fire Department 12,076 $3.8M Very High 1
Otis Volunteer Fire Department 10,515 $2.8M Very High 1
Merino Fire Department 9,396 $1.9M Relatively High 1
Cope Rural Fire Protection District 4,669 $1.3M Very High 1
Akron Volunteer Fire Department 4,831 $1.1M Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

8.1%
Poverty Rate
22.5%
Age 65+
12.5%
Disability Rate
6.0%
Uninsured
73.2%
Pre-1980 Housing
10.7%
Mobile Homes
9.5%
Vacancy Rate
2.3%
Wood Heat
$66,396
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
10
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo