Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Kent County, MI

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 27.6 Relatively Low

663,150
Population
30
Departments
86
Stations
145
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
2.64
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
5th highest of 83
Life Safety per 100k
0.40
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
73rd highest of 83
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$109.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 83
Property Loss per Resident
$165
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
79th 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 Kent County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 38% of the life-safety total.

Kent County carries an expected 3 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $109.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 83 Michigan counties. Nationally, Kent County ranks 206th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2764th for life safety per 100k residents, 192nd for property loss, and 3021st 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 Kent 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 Kent County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

75%
25%
Property (buildings): $109.6M (74.5%)
Life safety: $36.1M (24.6%)
Agriculture: $1.3M (0.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $147,051,259 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)

Tornado
$13.8M
Cold Wave
$8.0M
Heat Wave
$7.6M
Strong Wind
$4.9M
Winter Weather
$680K
Lightning
$602K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$89.0M
Tornado
$14.1M
Strong Wind
$3.9M
Earthquake
$934K
Hail
$763K
Ice Storm
$517K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Kent 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

13%
63%
23%
Career: 13% (4)
Combination: 63% (19)
Volunteer: 23% (7)
Residents per Station
7,711
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
13.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 30 departments registered in NERIS Public for Kent 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 Kent 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 30 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Grand Rapids Fire Department 187,490 $10.0M Relatively Low 13
Wyoming Department Of Public Safety Fire Services 72,693 $3.9M Very Low 8
Northville City Fire Department 42,126 $3.5M Relatively Low 2
Kentwood Fire Department 51,120 $3.0M Very Low 3
Plainfield Fire Department 43,163 $2.4M Relatively Low 3
Gaines Charter Township Fire Department 28,389 $1.8M Relatively Low 2
Grand Rapids Township Fire 27,722 $1.5M Relatively Low 3
Alpine Township Fire Department 22,501 $1.3M Relatively Low 11
Walker Fire Department 24,105 $1.2M Relatively Low 6
Byron Township Fire Department 17,650 $1.1M Relatively Low 2
Sand Lake Fire Department 16,708 $1.1M Relatively Low 4
Cascade Township Fire Department 19,442 $1.0M Relatively Moderate 2
Caledonia Fire-Rescue 16,197 $1.0M Relatively Low 2
Lowell Area Fire Department 16,966 $1.0M Relatively Moderate 1
Cannon Township Fire Department 18,372 $1.0M Relatively Low 2
Ada Township Fire Department 16,180 $965.5K Relatively Moderate 2
Courtland Fire NERIS Site 15,224 $813.6K Relatively Low 2
Grandville Fire Department 15,519 $739.5K Relatively Low 2
Algoma Township Fire Department 13,136 $672.0K Relatively Moderate 4
Solon Township Fire Department 12,432 $620.4K Relatively Low 1
East Grand Rapids Department Of Public Safety 10,032 $538.5K Very Low 1
Cedar Springs Fire Department 8,997 $481.5K Relatively Moderate 1
Spencer Township Fire Department 8,496 $459.6K Relatively Low 2
Sparta Fire Department 9,393 $444.2K Relatively Moderate 1
Bowne Township Fire Department 6,314 $381.1K Relatively Moderate 1
Oakfield Township Fire Department 6,122 $330.3K Relatively Low 1
Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority Fire Department 5,489 $291.6K Relatively Moderate 1
Kent City / Tyrone Township Fire Department 5,380 $255.2K Relatively Low 1
Rockford Fire Department 4,149 $243.4K Relatively Moderate 1
Grattan Township Fire Department 3,872 $207.6K Very Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

10.1%
Poverty Rate
14.9%
Age 65+
11.0%
Disability Rate
4.8%
Uninsured
54.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
3.8%
Mobile Homes
4.6%
Vacancy Rate
0.9%
Wood Heat
$89,832
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
7
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.

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