Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

DeSoto County, FL

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 89.3 Very High

35,386
Population
1
Departments
4
Stations
9
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
0.22
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
46th highest of 67
Life Safety per 100k
0.63
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
20th highest of 67
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$19.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
43rd highest of 67
Property Loss per Resident
$546
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
17th highest of 67

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 DeSoto County, the largest single contributor is Lightning, 38% of the life-safety total.

DeSoto County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $19.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 67 Florida counties. Nationally, DeSoto County ranks 1832nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2334th for life safety per 100k residents, 920th for property loss, and 720th 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 DeSoto 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 DeSoto County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

74%
12%
15%
Property (buildings): $19.3M (73.5%)
Life safety: $3.1M (11.6%)
Agriculture: $3.9M (14.8%)

Total expected annual loss: $26,272,413 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 15% of expected annual loss in DeSoto 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)

Lightning
$1.2M
Hurricane
$921K
Tornado
$519K
Heat Wave
$200K
Strong Wind
$90K
Inland Flooding
$72K

By property loss ($/yr)

Hurricane
$14.3M
Inland Flooding
$3.7M
Tornado
$471K
Strong Wind
$464K
Wildfire
$317K
Cold Wave
$46K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in DeSoto 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

100%
Combination: 100% (1)
Residents per Station
8,846
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
11.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 1 departments registered in NERIS Public for DeSoto County, FL. 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 DeSoto 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 1 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
DeSoto County Fire and Rescue 35,386 $3.1M Very High 4
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Risk Snapshot

24.1%
Poverty Rate
23.8%
Age 65+
21.3%
Disability Rate
19.9%
Uninsured
31.9%
Pre-1980 Housing
31.8%
Mobile Homes
19.2%
Vacancy Rate
0.2%
Wood Heat
$51,894
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

17
Last 10 Years
27
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo