Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Tompkins County, NY

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 41.4 Relatively Moderate

104,537
Population
17
Departments
23
Stations
26
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
0.23
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
36th highest of 62
Life Safety per 100k
0.22
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
55th highest of 62
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$31.2M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
23rd highest of 62
Property Loss per Resident
$299
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
23rd highest of 62

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 Tompkins County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 43% of the life-safety total.

Tompkins County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $31.2M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 62 New York counties. Nationally, Tompkins County ranks 1803rd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 3143rd for life safety per 100k residents, 573rd for property loss, and 1856th 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 Tompkins 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 Tompkins County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

90%
9%
Property (buildings): $31.2M (89.7%)
Life safety: $3.1M (8.9%)
Agriculture: $493K (1.4%)

Total expected annual loss: $34,842,537 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
$1.3M
Cold Wave
$523K
Lightning
$383K
Heat Wave
$358K
Strong Wind
$330K
Hail
$93K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$29.9M
Tornado
$489K
Hurricane
$307K
Strong Wind
$167K
Earthquake
$164K
Ice Storm
$143K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Tompkins 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

88%
Career: 6% (1)
Combination: 6% (1)
Volunteer: 88% (15)
Residents per Station
4,545
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
22.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 17 departments registered in NERIS Public for Tompkins County, NY. 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 Tompkins 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
Ithaca Fire Department 42,223 $1.3M Relatively Moderate 5
Varna Volunteer Fire Company 16,795 $522.2K Relatively Low 1
Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport 14,991 $444.4K Relatively Low 1
Lansing Fire Department 14,991 $444.4K Relatively Low 4
Newfield Fire Company 13,667 $409.2K Relatively High 1
Brooktondale Volunteer Fire Department 12,500 $406.7K Relatively Low 1
Odessa Fire Department 9,118 $313.1K Relatively Moderate 1
Enfield Fire District 9,013 $264.2K Relatively High 1
McLean Fire Department 8,802 $255.9K Relatively Moderate 1
West Danby Fire Department 7,988 $240.0K Relatively Low 0
Slaterville Volunteer Fire Company 6,531 $198.1K Relatively High 1
Groton Fire Department 4,035 $131.2K Relatively Moderate 1
W.B. Strong Fire Company 4,767 $124.7K Relatively High 1
Trumansburg Fire Dept 4,371 $121.4K Relatively Low 1
Speedsville Fire Company 3,103 $92.0K Relatively Moderate 1
Berkshire Fire Department 2,058 $80.8K Relatively Low 1
Cayuga Heights Fire Department 1,939 $61.8K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

16.4%
Poverty Rate
16.3%
Age 65+
12.0%
Disability Rate
4.4%
Uninsured
57.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
7.6%
Mobile Homes
9.5%
Vacancy Rate
4.4%
Wood Heat
$71,454
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
10
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