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.
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 Merced County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 70% of the life-safety total.
Merced County carries an expected 2 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $105.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 58 California counties. Nationally, Merced County ranks 332nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2373rd for life safety per 100k residents, 201st for property loss, and 1430th 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 Merced 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 Merced County See what a department seesWhat Drives the Loss
Total expected annual loss: $204,766,039 per year. Life safety is shown here in dollars, at FEMA's $13.7M value of statistical life, so the three shares sum to the total.
Agriculture is 37% of expected annual loss in Merced County, so total loss overstates property loss here. The property figure above counts building loss only.
Hazards Ranked Two Ways
The hazard that threatens people is often not the hazard that destroys buildings. Both columns cover the same 18 hazards over the same year.
By life-safety loss ($/yr)
By property loss ($/yr)
Census Tract Risk Map
Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Merced 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
Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Merced 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 Merced 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.
| Department ▲ | Est. Population ▲ | Life-Safety Loss ▼ | NRI Rating ▲ | Stations ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merced County Fire Department | 290,201 | $24.2M | Relatively High | 19 |
| Dos Palos Fire Department | 218,182 | $23.1M | Relatively High | 0 |
| Gustine Volunteer Fire Department | 218,182 | $23.1M | Relatively High | 0 |
| Hollister Fire Department | 96,047 | $20.0M | Very High | 4 |
| San Benito County Fire Department | 96,047 | $20.0M | Very High | 1 |
| Madera County Fire Department | 97,595 | $8.0M | Very High | 14 |
| City Of Merced Fire Department | 69,499 | $5.5M | Relatively High | 5 |
| Los Banos Fire Department | 51,572 | $4.7M | Relatively High | 2 |
| West Stanislaus County Fire Protection District | 41,764 | $4.4M | Relatively High | 13 |
| Turlock Rural Fire Protection District | 14,692 | $1.1M | Very High | 2 |
| Atwater Fire Department | 21,204 | $884.4K | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Denair Volunteer Fire Department | 18,119 | $806.4K | Very High | 1 |
Risk Snapshot
FEMA Disaster Declarations
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