Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Kalamazoo County, MI

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 22.8 Relatively Low

262,375
Population
17
Departments
49
Stations
68
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
0.84
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
18th highest of 83
Life Safety per 100k
0.32
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
79th highest of 83
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$43.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
10th highest of 83
Property Loss per Resident
$165
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
80th highest of 83

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 Kalamazoo County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 44% of the life-safety total.

Kalamazoo County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $43.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 83 Michigan counties. Nationally, Kalamazoo County ranks 688th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2942nd for life safety per 100k residents, 437th for property loss, and 3023rd 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 Kalamazoo 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 Kalamazoo County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

79%
21%
Property (buildings): $43.3M (78.6%)
Life safety: $11.6M (21.0%)
Agriculture: $216K (0.4%)

Total expected annual loss: $55,094,157 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
$5.1M
Cold Wave
$4.3M
Heat Wave
$608K
Lightning
$494K
Strong Wind
$484K
Winter Weather
$257K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$27.3M
Tornado
$7.2M
Hail
$5.7M
Strong Wind
$1.9M
Earthquake
$717K
Ice Storm
$238K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Kalamazoo 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

12%
35%
53%
Career: 12% (2)
Combination: 35% (6)
Volunteer: 53% (9)
Residents per Station
5,355
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
18.7
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 17 departments registered in NERIS Public for Kalamazoo County, MI. 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 Kalamazoo 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 17 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Oshtemo Fire Department 83,178 $3.6M Very Low 6
City Of Kalamazoo Department Of Public Safety 68,139 $3.0M Very Low 6
Portage Fire Department 63,873 $3.0M Relatively Low 6
Pavilion Township Fire Department 31,436 $1.7M Relatively Low 3
Comstock Charter Township Fire & Rescue 31,260 $1.6M Relatively Low 6
Richland Township Fire Department 20,097 $1.6M Relatively Low 1
South Kalamazoo County Fire Authority 19,615 $883.8K Relatively Low 3
Richland Township Fire Department 17,445 $881.7K Relatively Low 1
Kalamazoo Township Fire Department 19,044 $835.3K Very Low 5
Texas Township Fire Department 17,799 $752.6K Relatively Low 2
Hamilton Fire Department 12,478 $461.9K Relatively Low 1
Cooper Charter Township Fire Department 10,469 $453.9K Relatively Low 2
Galesburg-Charleston Fire Department 9,281 $404.7K Relatively Moderate 2
Ross-Augusta Fire Department 4,830 $212.6K Relatively Moderate 2
Alamo Township Fire And Rescue Department 3,821 $166.8K Relatively Low 1
Climax Township Fire Department 3,760 $162.7K Very Low 1
Parchment Fire Department 1,461 $61.2K Very Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

12.7%
Poverty Rate
16.1%
Age 65+
11.9%
Disability Rate
4.7%
Uninsured
57.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
3.4%
Mobile Homes
6.8%
Vacancy Rate
1.1%
Wood Heat
$77,845
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
6
Last 25 Years
Snowstorm
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