Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Orange County, CA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 76.8 Relatively High

3.2M
Population
28
Departments
399
Stations
614
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
24.1
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 58
Life Safety per 100k
0.76
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
32nd highest of 58
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$1.6B
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 58
Property Loss per Resident
$504
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
42nd 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 Orange County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 94% of the life-safety total.

Orange County carries an expected 24 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $1.6B in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 58 California counties. Nationally, Orange County ranks 14th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2141st for life safety per 100k residents, 4th for property loss, and 847th 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 Orange 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 Orange County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

83%
17%
Property (buildings): $1.6B (82.8%)
Life safety: $330.4M (17.2%)
Agriculture: $92K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $1,926,466,570 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)

Earthquake
$309.2M
Heat Wave
$11.0M
Landslide
$3.2M
Wildfire
$2.8M
Tornado
$1.9M
Inland Flooding
$1.4M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$818.5M
Earthquake
$706.1M
Wildfire
$54.8M
Coastal Flooding
$8.4M
Tornado
$3.4M
Tsunami
$2.5M

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Orange 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

39%
54%
Career: 39% (11)
Combination: 54% (15)
Unreported: 7% (2)
Residents per Station
7,934
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
12.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 28 departments registered in NERIS Public for Orange 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 Orange 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 28 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Los Angeles County Fire Department 4.0M $531.1M Relatively High 186
City Of La Habra Fire Department 3.6M $488.3M Relatively High 0
Riverside County Fire Department 2.0M $172.5M Very High 42
California Rehabilitation Center 1.7M $145.6M Very High 1
City Of Norco Fire Department 1.7M $145.6M Very High 2
Indian Wells Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 1
La Quinta Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 3
Lake Elsinore Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 3
Moreno Valley Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 7
Palm Desert Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 3
Perris Fire Services 1.7M $145.6M Very High 3
Rancho Mirage Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 2
Temecula Fire Service 1.7M $145.6M Very High 5
Los Alamitos Army Fire & Emergency Services 1.5M $97.7M Relatively High 1
San Onofre Fire Department 1.5M $97.7M Relatively High 1
Anaheim Fire & Rescue 315,840 $43.1M Relatively High 35
Fullerton Fire Department 132,129 $31.3M Very High 7
City Of Santa Paula Fire Department 87,290 $27.6M Very High 2
Mule Creek State Prison Fire Department 75,700 $22.8M Very High 1
Orange Fire Department 127,722 $20.4M Very High 8
Huntington Beach Fire Department 175,613 $14.5M Relatively High 23
Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Department 106,660 $13.1M Relatively High 12
Chino Valley Independent Fire District 171,400 $11.0M Very High 10
Brea Fire Department 38,386 $8.0M Very High 10
Placentia Fire Department 45,832 $6.6M Relatively High 2
Newport Beach Fire Department 76,771 $6.3M Relatively High 20
City Of Fountain Valley Fire Department 52,068 $5.4M Relatively High 5
Laguna Beach Fire Department 22,506 $2.9M Relatively High 4
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

9.5%
Poverty Rate
16.3%
Age 65+
9.6%
Disability Rate
6.4%
Uninsured
56.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.7%
Mobile Homes
5.5%
Vacancy Rate
0.1%
Wood Heat
$122,471
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

13
Last 10 Years
25
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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