Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

New Castle County, DE

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 48.3 Relatively Moderate

577,961
Population
27
Departments
59
Stations
145
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
2.56
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
1st highest of 3
Life Safety per 100k
0.44
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
3rd highest of 3
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$165.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
1st highest of 3
Property Loss per Resident
$286
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
2nd highest of 3

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 New Castle County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 30% of the life-safety total.

New Castle County carries an expected 3 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $165.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 3 Delaware counties. Nationally, New Castle County ranks 213th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2670th for life safety per 100k residents, 122nd for property loss, and 1966th 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 New Castle 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 New Castle County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

82%
17%
Property (buildings): $165.3M (81.7%)
Life safety: $35.0M (17.3%)
Agriculture: $1.9M (0.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $202,209,234 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)

Cold Wave
$10.5M
Inland Flooding
$8.6M
Heat Wave
$7.1M
Tornado
$3.2M
Earthquake
$2.1M
Winter Weather
$1.8M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$141.7M
Earthquake
$7.2M
Hurricane
$6.0M
Tornado
$3.7M
Coastal Flooding
$3.7M
Strong Wind
$1.4M

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in New Castle 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

81%
Career: 4% (1)
Combination: 81% (22)
Volunteer: 7% (2)
Unreported: 7% (2)
Residents per Station
9,796
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
10.2
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 27 departments registered in NERIS Public for New Castle County, DE. 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 New Castle 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 27 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Wilmington Fire Department 67,164 $5.4M Relatively Moderate 8
Aetna Hose, Hook And Ladder Company 82,670 $4.9M Relatively High 5
Christiana Fire Company 84,692 $4.4M Relatively Moderate 7
American Legion Ambulance Services 64 45,841 $3.7M Relatively Moderate 1
Singerly Fire Company 56,259 $3.4M Relatively Low 3
Volunteer Hose Company Of Middletown 50,897 $2.3M Relatively Moderate 2
Mill Creek Fire Company 40,142 $2.2M Relatively Moderate 3
Citizens' Hose Company No. 1, Inc. 27,625 $2.2M Relatively Moderate 1
West Grove Fire Company 31,298 $2.0M Relatively Moderate 7
Talleyville Fire Company, Inc. 35,360 $1.9M Relatively Low 1
Clayton Fire Company No 1, Inc. 19,894 $1.6M Relatively Moderate 1
Odessa Fire Company, Inc. (Station 24) 31,973 $1.6M Relatively Moderate 2
Good-Will Fire Company No 1 14,195 $1.4M Relatively Low 1
Claymont Fire Company 29,549 $1.4M Very Low 2
Hockessin Fire Company 25,896 $1.4M Relatively High 1
Elsmere Fire Company No 1 11,439 $1.3M Relatively Moderate 1
Delaware City Fire Company Station #15 9,631 $1.1M Relatively Moderate 1
Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No 1 17,799 $970.0K Relatively Low 2
Townsend Fire Company 20,650 $955.3K Relatively Low 1
Minquas Fire Company No. 1 10,811 $726.0K Relatively Moderate 2
Wilmington Manor Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. 11,001 $633.1K Relatively Moderate 2
Cranston Heights Fire Company 9,982 $538.8K Relatively High 1
Port Penn Volunteer Fire Company 7,627 $501.9K Relatively High 0
Five Points Fire Company, Inc. 7,473 $467.6K Relatively Moderate 1
Minquadale Fire Company 9,082 $464.6K Relatively Low 1
Holloway Terrace Volunteer Fire Company 4,162 $286.5K Relatively Low 2
Belvedere Volunteer Fire Company 589 $34.8K Relatively High 0
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

10.1%
Poverty Rate
17.1%
Age 65+
12.9%
Disability Rate
5.9%
Uninsured
55.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.0%
Mobile Homes
5.0%
Vacancy Rate
0.3%
Wood Heat
$98,301
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
13
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
Most Frequent

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