Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Thurston County, WA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 73.2 Relatively High

299,067
Population
17
Departments
117
Stations
62
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
4.07
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
10th highest of 39
Life Safety per 100k
1.36
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
17th highest of 39
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$134.8M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 39
Property Loss per Resident
$451
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
22nd highest of 39

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 Thurston County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 92% of the life-safety total.

Thurston County carries an expected 4 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $134.8M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 39 Washington counties. Nationally, Thurston County ranks 127th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1185th for life safety per 100k residents, 153rd for property loss, and 1026th 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 Thurston 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 Thurston County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

71%
29%
Property (buildings): $134.8M (70.7%)
Life safety: $55.8M (29.3%)
Agriculture: $43K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $190,637,089 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)

Earthquake
$51.2M
Heat Wave
$3.7M
Tornado
$269K
Ice Storm
$154K
Volcanic Activity
$139K
Lightning
$112K

By property loss ($/yr)

Earthquake
$82.5M
Inland Flooding
$49.6M
Landslide
$1.5M
Coastal Flooding
$447K
Strong Wind
$234K
Tornado
$162K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Thurston 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

18%
71%
12%
Career: 18% (3)
Combination: 71% (12)
Volunteer: 12% (2)
Residents per Station
2,556
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
39.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 17 departments registered in NERIS Public for Thurston County, WA. 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 Thurston 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 17 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Olympia Fire Department 52,831 $25.4M Very High 4
South Pierce Fire & Rescue #17 28,816 $21.6M Very High 8
Lacey Fire District # 3 98,992 $12.8M Relatively High 6
Pierce 23 Fire & Rescue 11,278 $11.1M Very High 5
Bald Hills Fire Protection District 17 17,638 $10.0M Relatively High 4
Tumwater Fire Department 35,218 $7.8M Very High 4
West Thurston Regional Fire Authority 42,814 $3.1M Relatively High 10
S.E. Thurston Fire Authority 46,225 $3.1M Relatively High 4
Thurston County Fire Protection District #11 33,078 $2.3M Relatively High 4
Mclane Black Lake Fire Dept - Thurston County Fire District 5 26,314 $2.0M Relatively High 3
Mclane Black Lake Fire Dept - Thurston County Fire District 9 26,314 $2.0M Relatively High 7
East Olympia Fire District 6 28,688 $1.7M Relatively High 6
Mcchord Afb Fire Department 25,225 $1.7M Relatively Low 7
North Olympia Fire Department 18,635 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Thurston County Fire Protection District 8 18,635 $1.6M Relatively High 39
Thurston County Fire Protection District No. 13 10,060 $718.8K Relatively High 4
Bucoda Volunteer Fire Department 4,521 $525.0K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

9.5%
Poverty Rate
18.7%
Age 65+
16.1%
Disability Rate
5.0%
Uninsured
33.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
8.1%
Mobile Homes
5.0%
Vacancy Rate
3.7%
Wood Heat
$99,059
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

7
Last 10 Years
16
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