Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Whitman County, WA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 37.0 Relatively Low

47,003
Population
17
Departments
27
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
27th highest of 39
Life Safety per 100k
0.50
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
32nd highest of 39
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$10.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
30th highest of 39
Property Loss per Resident
$228
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
35th 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 Whitman County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 67% of the life-safety total.

Whitman County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $10.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 39 Washington counties. Nationally, Whitman County ranks 1775th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2549th for life safety per 100k residents, 1452nd for property loss, and 2506th 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 Whitman 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 Whitman County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

75%
22%
Property (buildings): $10.7M (74.8%)
Life safety: $3.2M (22.2%)
Agriculture: $431K (3.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $14,355,312 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
$2.1M
Heat Wave
$652K
Strong Wind
$140K
Earthquake
$75K
Tornado
$61K
Ice Storm
$54K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$10.1M
Earthquake
$344K
Wildfire
$169K
Landslide
$81K
Strong Wind
$39K
Tornado
$22K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Whitman 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

29%
59%
12%
Combination: 29% (5)
Volunteer: 59% (10)
Unreported: 12% (2)
Residents per Station
1,741
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
57.4
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 17 departments registered in NERIS Public for Whitman 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 Whitman 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
Albion Fire Department 20,950 $1.3M Relatively Low 2
City Of Pullman Fire Department 20,327 $1.3M Relatively Low 4
Washington State University Fire Services 20,327 $1.3M Relatively Low 0
Whitman County Fire District #12 20,327 $1.3M Relatively Low 3
Whitman County Fire District #14 13,282 $815.7K Relatively Low 2
St. John Volunteer Fire Department 10,369 $778.7K Relatively High 1
Palouse Fire Department 8,498 $545.1K Relatively Low 2
Rosalia Fire Department 6,912 $530.5K Relatively High 1
Tekoa Fire Department 6,912 $530.5K Relatively High 1
Whitman County Fire District #10 6,912 $530.5K Relatively High 2
Whitman County Fire District #7 6,912 $530.5K Relatively High 2
Whitman County Fire District No. 6 5,582 $431.8K Relatively High 2
Columbia County Fire District 3 4,014 $335.4K Very High 2
Clarkston Fire Department/Rescue One 7,109 $302.2K Relatively Low 1
Malden Volunteer Fire Department & Ems 3,532 $281.2K Relatively High 0
Town Of Garfield Fire Department 3,380 $249.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Colfax Fire Department 3,457 $248.2K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

22.7%
Poverty Rate
11.9%
Age 65+
14.6%
Disability Rate
5.5%
Uninsured
54.2%
Pre-1980 Housing
6.2%
Mobile Homes
15.3%
Vacancy Rate
2.3%
Wood Heat
$59,450
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
8
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