Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Suffolk County, MA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 15.9 Very Low

785,121
Population
6
Departments
55
Stations
235
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
1.89
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
2nd highest of 14
Life Safety per 100k
0.24
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
3rd highest of 14
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$89.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
7th highest of 14
Property Loss per Resident
$113
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
14th highest of 14

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 Suffolk County, the largest single contributor is Heat Wave, 36% of the life-safety total.

Suffolk County carries an expected 2 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $89.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 14 Massachusetts counties. Nationally, Suffolk County ranks 301st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 3104th for life safety per 100k residents, 249th for property loss, and 3191st 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 Suffolk 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 Suffolk County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

77%
23%
Property (buildings): $89.0M (77.4%)
Life safety: $25.9M (22.6%)
Agriculture: $6K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $114,876,776 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)

Heat Wave
$9.4M
Cold Wave
$8.7M
Earthquake
$3.4M
Lightning
$1.9M
Coastal Flooding
$1.1M
Hurricane
$502K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$59.5M
Hurricane
$12.4M
Earthquake
$8.2M
Coastal Flooding
$5.2M
Tornado
$2.2M
Hail
$598K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Suffolk 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%
Career: 100% (6)
Residents per Station
14,275
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
7.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 6 departments registered in NERIS Public for Suffolk County, MA. 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 Suffolk 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 6 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Boston Fire Department 623,713 $20.1M Very Low 37
Revere Fire Department 49,735 $1.9M Relatively Low 5
Chelsea Fire Department 33,281 $1.1M Relatively Low 4
Massport Fire Rescue 22,995 $644.5K Relatively Low 5
Saugus Fire Department 26,136 $629.7K Relatively Moderate 2
Winthrop Fire Department 13,158 $473.8K Very Low 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

16.2%
Poverty Rate
13.3%
Age 65+
12.6%
Disability Rate
3.1%
Uninsured
72.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
0.2%
Mobile Homes
8.4%
Vacancy Rate
0.1%
Wood Heat
$98,061
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
24
Last 25 Years
Snowstorm
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