Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Houghton County, MI

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 34.1 Relatively Low

37,693
Population
22
Departments
26
Stations
12
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
0.23
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
50th highest of 83
Life Safety per 100k
0.61
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
48th highest of 83
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$6.8M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
48th highest of 83
Property Loss per Resident
$182
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
66th highest of 83

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 Houghton County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 77% of the life-safety total.

Houghton County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $6.8M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 83 Michigan counties. Nationally, Houghton County ranks 1790th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2367th for life safety per 100k residents, 1927th for property loss, and 2921st 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 Houghton 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 Houghton County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

68%
31%
Property (buildings): $6.8M (68.2%)
Life safety: $3.1M (31.4%)
Agriculture: $43K (0.4%)

Total expected annual loss: $10,041,035 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)

Cold Wave
$2.4M
Winter Weather
$328K
Lightning
$218K
Strong Wind
$100K
Heat Wave
$25K
Tornado
$21K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$6.5M
Hail
$213K
Strong Wind
$61K
Winter Weather
$18K
Tornado
$12K
Wildfire
$10K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Houghton 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%
Volunteer: 100% (22)
Residents per Station
1,450
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
69.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 22 departments registered in NERIS Public for Houghton County, MI. 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 Houghton 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 22 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Lake Linden Volunteer Fire Department 15,553 $1.9M Relatively Low 1
Stanton Township Volunteer Fire Department, Precinct 1, Inc. 12,040 $1.0M Relatively Low 1
Houghton Fire Department 11,879 $959.4K Relatively Moderate 1
Calumet Township Fire And Rescue 11,536 $908.5K Relatively Low 1
Quincy-Franklin-Hancock Townships Volunteer Fire Department 10,438 $814.8K Relatively Low 3
Adams Township Volunteer Fire Department 7,577 $659.9K Relatively Low 2
Twin Lakes Fire Department 6,185 $629.2K Relatively Low 1
Tamarack City Volunteer Fire Department 7,337 $593.3K Relatively Low 1
Dollar Bay Volunteer Fire Department 7,294 $547.7K Relatively Low 1
Toivola Volunteer Fire Department 4,648 $510.3K Relatively Low 1
Hancock Volunteer Fire Department 6,306 $504.4K Relatively Moderate 1
Hurontown Fire And Rescue 4,438 $399.9K Relatively Low 1
Chassell Volunteer Fire & Rescue 3,046 $369.2K Relatively Moderate 1
Duncan Township Vfd 3,046 $369.2K Relatively Moderate 2
Trout Creek Volunteer Fire Department 3,046 $369.2K Relatively Moderate 1
Ripley Volunteer Fire Department 4,349 $337.9K Relatively Moderate 1
Hubbell Fire Department 3,144 $267.2K Relatively Low 1
Laurium Fire Department 3,153 $239.0K Very Low 1
Ahmeek Village Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department 3,101 $221.6K Relatively Low 2
Bootjack Fire And Rescue 3,101 $221.6K Relatively Low 1
Copper City Volunteer Fire Department 3,101 $221.6K Relatively Low 0
Calumet Village Volunteer Fire Department 2,138 $180.8K Very Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

16.5%
Poverty Rate
18.0%
Age 65+
11.6%
Disability Rate
5.1%
Uninsured
70.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
4.2%
Mobile Homes
24.2%
Vacancy Rate
7.6%
Wood Heat
$58,451
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
6
Last 25 Years
Flood
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