Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

McKenzie County, ND

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 72.8 Relatively High

14,321
Population
11
Departments
10
Stations
5
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
0.46
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
10th highest of 53
Life Safety per 100k
3.19
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
15th highest of 53
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$4.9M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
15th highest of 53
Property Loss per Resident
$341
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
44th highest of 53

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 McKenzie County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 71% of the life-safety total.

McKenzie County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $4.9M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 53 North Dakota counties. Nationally, McKenzie County ranks 1154th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 279th for life safety per 100k residents, 2253rd for property loss, and 1563rd 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 McKenzie 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 McKenzie County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

42%
53%
Property (buildings): $4.9M (41.7%)
Life safety: $6.3M (53.4%)
Agriculture: $567K (4.8%)

Total expected annual loss: $11,703,992 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)

Cold Wave
$4.4M
Strong Wind
$657K
Tornado
$476K
Winter Weather
$275K
Lightning
$113K
Hail
$109K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$2.6M
Hail
$973K
Wildfire
$403K
Tornado
$369K
Ice Storm
$249K
Winter Weather
$194K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in McKenzie 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

100%
Volunteer: 100% (11)
Residents per Station
1,432
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
69.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 11 departments registered in NERIS Public for McKenzie County, ND. 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 McKenzie 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 11 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Sidney Volunteer Fire Department 17,459 $20.6M Very High 2
Williston Rural Fire Protection District 22,992 $7.5M Very High 0
Watford City Volunteer Fire Department 11,052 $4.6M Relatively High 2
Arnegard Rural Fire District 11,181 $4.2M Relatively High 1
West Dunn Fire District 8,107 $2.6M Very High 1
Alexander Volunteer Fire Department 3,908 $1.5M Relatively Moderate 1
Grassy Butte Fire Protection District 3,908 $1.5M Relatively Moderate 1
Belfield Volunteer Fire Department 2,910 $862.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Billings County Rural Fire Protection District 2,910 $862.3K Relatively Moderate 0
Medora Fire Department 2,910 $862.3K Relatively Moderate 0
Sioux-Yellowstone Rural Fire Protection District 2,089 $820.2K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

12.0%
Poverty Rate
9.3%
Age 65+
8.9%
Disability Rate
10.9%
Uninsured
21.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
18.8%
Mobile Homes
22.6%
Vacancy Rate
0.1%
Wood Heat
$97,207
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
17
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
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