Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Humboldt County, CA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 92.3 Very High

134,541
Population
19
Departments
50
Stations
36
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
4.31
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
20th highest of 58
Life Safety per 100k
3.20
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
6th highest of 58
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$127.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
27th highest of 58
Property Loss per Resident
$949
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
14th highest of 58

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 Humboldt County, the largest single contributor is Tsunami, 55% of the life-safety total.

Humboldt County carries an expected 4 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $127.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 58 California counties. Nationally, Humboldt County ranks 122nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 276th for life safety per 100k residents, 164th for property loss, and 151st 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 Humboldt 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 Humboldt County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

68%
31%
Property (buildings): $127.6M (67.6%)
Life safety: $59.0M (31.3%)
Agriculture: $2.0M (1.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $188,650,761 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)

Tsunami
$32.5M
Earthquake
$24.4M
Landslide
$1.0M
Inland Flooding
$494K
Heat Wave
$248K
Wildfire
$159K

By property loss ($/yr)

Earthquake
$69.7M
Inland Flooding
$49.3M
Coastal Flooding
$3.7M
Wildfire
$2.9M
Landslide
$1.3M
Tsunami
$817K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Humboldt 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

11%
21%
68%
Career: 11% (2)
Combination: 21% (4)
Volunteer: 68% (13)
Residents per Station
2,691
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
37.2
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 19 departments registered in NERIS Public for Humboldt County, CA. 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 Humboldt 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 19 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Humboldt Bay Fire Authority 54,107 $38.1M Very High 5
Dos Palos Fire Department 218,182 $23.1M Relatively High 0
Gustine Volunteer Fire Department 218,182 $23.1M Relatively High 0
Arcata Fire Protection District 44,602 $15.3M Very High 6
Samoa Peninsula Fire District 1,695 $7.7M Very High 2
CAL FIRE Humboldt- Del Norte 23,555 $4.6M Very High 17
California Department Of Forestry 23,555 $4.6M Very High 1
Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department 23,555 $4.6M Very High 6
Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department 3,123 $3.2M Very High 1
U.S. Forest Service-Trinity River Managment Unit 15,860 $1.5M Very High 1
Kneeland Volunteer Fire Department 16,601 $1.3M Very High 1
Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department 12,686 $1.2M Very High 1
Beginnings Volunteer Fire Department 2,695 $1.0M Very High 3
Whitethorn Fire Protection District 2,695 $1.0M Very High 1
Shelter Cove Fire Department 976 $715.4K Very High 1
Fieldbrook Volunteer Fire Department 7,633 $609.1K Very High 1
Blue Lake Volunteer Fire Department 7,934 $599.9K Very High 1
Willow Creek Volunteer Fire Department 2,192 $467.1K Very High 1
Salyer Volunteer Fire Department 2,708 $192.5K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

18.7%
Poverty Rate
19.8%
Age 65+
18.9%
Disability Rate
4.9%
Uninsured
59.6%
Pre-1980 Housing
6.9%
Mobile Homes
12.7%
Vacancy Rate
15.6%
Wood Heat
$63,667
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
11
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.

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