Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Boulder County, CO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 43.3 Relatively Moderate

328,961
Population
23
Departments
130
Stations
78
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
2.78
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
8th highest of 64
Life Safety per 100k
0.85
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
43rd highest of 64
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$100.8M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
5th highest of 64
Property Loss per Resident
$306
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
50th highest of 64

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 Boulder County, the largest single contributor is Avalanche, 42% of the life-safety total.

Boulder County carries an expected 3 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $100.8M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 64 Colorado counties. Nationally, Boulder County ranks 192nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1988th for life safety per 100k residents, 215th for property loss, and 1797th 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 Boulder 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 Boulder County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

72%
27%
Property (buildings): $100.8M (72.3%)
Life safety: $38.1M (27.3%)
Agriculture: $450K (0.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $139,375,935 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
$15.8M
Lightning
$5.8M
Inland Flooding
$4.3M
Tornado
$3.8M
Cold Wave
$3.0M
Strong Wind
$1.5M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$64.7M
Wildfire
$15.0M
Hail
$9.2M
Tornado
$8.6M
Earthquake
$2.0M
Strong Wind
$795K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Boulder 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

17%
26%
48%
9%
Career: 17% (4)
Combination: 26% (6)
Volunteer: 48% (11)
Unreported: 9% (2)
Residents per Station
2,530
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
39.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 23 departments registered in NERIS Public for Boulder County, CO. 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 Boulder 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 23 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
City Of Boulder Fire Department 104,782 $13.5M Relatively Moderate 16
Mountain View Fire Protection District 123,295 $12.3M Relatively Moderate 19
Berthoud Fire Protection District 35,626 $11.0M Relatively Moderate 5
Lyons Fire Protection District 8,874 $10.2M Very High 1
North Metro Fire Rescue District 123,272 $8.7M Relatively Low 8
Big Elk Volunteer Fire Department 6,508 $8.1M Very High 1
Allenspark Fire Protection District 4,857 $7.8M Very High 5
Indian Peaks Fire Protection District 8,624 $7.7M Very High 1
Four Mile Fire Department 10,024 $6.1M Very High 7
Longmont Fire Department 88,642 $5.4M Relatively Low 13
Timberline Fire Protection District 11,970 $4.7M Relatively High 19
Coal Creek Canyon Fire Protection District 11,109 $4.6M Very High 5
Lefthand Fire Protection District 7,926 $4.1M Very High 4
Sugar Loaf Fire Protection District 4,977 $3.9M Very High 3
Nederland Fire Protection District 6,069 $3.9M Very High 6
Pinewood Springs Fire Protection District 1,809 $3.1M Very High 1
Boulder Rural Fire Protection District 17,017 $2.9M Relatively High 2
Hygiene Fire Protection District 12,757 $2.7M Relatively Moderate 2
Boulder Mountain Fire Protection District 4,992 $2.1M Very High 4
Sunshine Fire Protection District 4,992 $2.1M Very High 2
Gold Hill Fire Protection District 1,264 $1.9M Very High 1
Lafayette Fire Department 20,729 $1.1M Relatively Low 2
Louisville Fire Protection District 12,150 $840.1K Relatively Moderate 3
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

11.2%
Poverty Rate
16.4%
Age 65+
9.4%
Disability Rate
4.4%
Uninsured
41.6%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.3%
Mobile Homes
5.3%
Vacancy Rate
0.9%
Wood Heat
$111,942
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
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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