Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Nevada County, CA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 81.7 Very High

102,481
Population
10
Departments
60
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
1.35
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
33rd highest of 58
Life Safety per 100k
1.32
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
19th highest of 58
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$75.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
37th highest of 58
Property Loss per Resident
$732
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
29th 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 Nevada County, the largest single contributor is Avalanche, 79% of the life-safety total.

Nevada County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $75.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 58 California counties. Nationally, Nevada County ranks 441st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1242nd for life safety per 100k residents, 288th for property loss, and 330th 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 Nevada 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 Nevada County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

80%
20%
Property (buildings): $75.0M (80.2%)
Life safety: $18.5M (19.7%)
Agriculture: $19K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $93,488,519 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
$14.5M
Wildfire
$1.6M
Earthquake
$785K
Heat Wave
$517K
Lightning
$489K
Hail
$244K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$37.4M
Wildfire
$30.8M
Earthquake
$6.5M
Tornado
$158K
Landslide
$100K
Strong Wind
$27K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Nevada 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

40%
40%
20%
Career: 40% (4)
Combination: 40% (4)
Volunteer: 20% (2)
Residents per Station
1,708
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
58.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 10 departments registered in NERIS Public for Nevada 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 Nevada 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
Placer County Fire Department 32,670 $43.3M Very High 12
Truckee Fire Protection District 27,622 $28.1M Very High 14
Washington Fire Department 102,311 $18.5M Very High 1
Placer Hills Fire Protection District 20,281 $14.6M Very High 4
Nevada County Consolidated Fire District 61,933 $10.5M Very High 13
Penn Valley Fire Protection District 21,721 $7.5M Very High 3
Higgins Area Fire Protection District 17,863 $2.2M Relatively High 1
Peardale - Chicago Park Fire Protection District 12,043 $2.1M Very High 4
North San Juan Fire Protection District 3,902 $2.0M Very High 4
Grass Valley Fire Department 12,502 $341.8K Relatively High 4
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

11.0%
Poverty Rate
29.3%
Age 65+
14.9%
Disability Rate
5.3%
Uninsured
42.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
4.6%
Mobile Homes
21.1%
Vacancy Rate
12.3%
Wood Heat
$94,851
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

12
Last 10 Years
16
Last 25 Years
Fire
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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