Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Taos County, NM

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 90.4 Very High

34,543
Population
10
Departments
23
Stations
10
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
1.38
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
2nd highest of 33
Life Safety per 100k
3.98
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
1st highest of 33
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$17.8M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
15th highest of 33
Property Loss per Resident
$515
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
18th highest of 33

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 Taos County, the largest single contributor is Avalanche, 90% of the life-safety total.

Taos County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $17.8M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 33 New Mexico counties. Nationally, Taos County ranks 428th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 176th for life safety per 100k residents, 980th for property loss, and 805th 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 Taos 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 Taos County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

48%
51%
Property (buildings): $17.8M (48.2%)
Life safety: $18.8M (51.1%)
Agriculture: $246K (0.7%)

Total expected annual loss: $36,896,882 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
$17.0M
Lightning
$691K
Cold Wave
$411K
Winter Weather
$314K
Wildfire
$136K
Tornado
$109K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$14.1M
Wildfire
$3.3M
Earthquake
$286K
Tornado
$71K
Winter Weather
$25K
Hail
$23K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Taos 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

20%
70%
10%
Combination: 20% (2)
Volunteer: 70% (7)
Unreported: 10% (1)
Residents per Station
1,502
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
66.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 10 departments registered in NERIS Public for Taos County, NM. 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 Taos 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 10 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Taos Ski Valley Fire Department 10,862 $6.2M Very High 5
Taos County District 3 11,126 $6.2M Very High 2
Eagle Nest Volunteer Fire Department 12,687 $4.8M Very High 2
Cerro Fire Department 7,757 $4.1M Very High 1
Latir Volunteer Fire Department 7,757 $4.1M Very High 1
C.H.E.T. Volunteer Fire Department 7,253 $2.5M Very High 2
Taos County District 4 10,017 $2.5M Very High 3
Rio Fernando Fire District 2,979 $2.1M Very High 2
Taos County District 1 3,702 $2.1M Very High 1
Angel Fire FD 5,194 $629.0K Very High 4
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

15.5%
Poverty Rate
30.5%
Age 65+
21.1%
Disability Rate
7.7%
Uninsured
41.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
13.7%
Mobile Homes
26.8%
Vacancy Rate
22.2%
Wood Heat
$60,476
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

2
Last 10 Years
6
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