Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Ashe County, NC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 77.6 Relatively High

26,950
Population
13
Departments
17
Stations
9
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
0.32
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
51st highest of 100
Life Safety per 100k
1.17
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
10th highest of 100
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$11.9M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
64th highest of 100
Property Loss per Resident
$443
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
27th highest of 100

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 Ashe County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 63% of the life-safety total.

Ashe County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $11.9M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 100 North Carolina counties. Nationally, Ashe County ranks 1473rd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1435th for life safety per 100k residents, 1346th for property loss, and 1058th 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 Ashe 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 Ashe County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

67%
24%
9%
Property (buildings): $11.9M (66.9%)
Life safety: $4.3M (24.2%)
Agriculture: $1.6M (8.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $17,849,082 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.

Agriculture is 9% of expected annual loss in Ashe County, so total loss overstates property loss here. The property figure above counts building loss only.

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
$2.7M
Strong Wind
$919K
Tornado
$222K
Lightning
$165K
Inland Flooding
$121K
Landslide
$62K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$10.9M
Tornado
$366K
Earthquake
$197K
Hurricane
$176K
Ice Storm
$121K
Strong Wind
$58K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Ashe 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

85%
Combination: 8% (1)
Volunteer: 85% (11)
Unreported: 8% (1)
Residents per Station
1,585
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
63.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 13 departments registered in NERIS Public for Ashe County, NC. 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 Ashe 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 13 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Deep Gap Volunteer Fire Department 17,452 $2.3M Relatively High 1
Creston Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 15,498 $2.3M Very High 2
Warrensville Volunteer Fire & Rescue 12,821 $2.0M Very High 1
Lansing Volunteer Fire Rescue Department 10,446 $1.8M Relatively High 1
New River Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, Inc. 8,625 $1.5M Very High 2
Glendale Springs Volunteer Fire Department 7,936 $1.3M Relatively High 1
Second District Volunteer Fire Department 14,594 $1.3M Relatively High 2
Laurel Springs Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 5,620 $998.5K Very High 1
Fleetwood Volunteer Fire & Rescue 6,309 $951.5K Relatively High 1
Pond Mountain Fire & Rescue 5,038 $822.4K Relatively High 1
Piney Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 3,381 $653.9K Very High 1
Trade Volunteer Fire Department 4,423 $414.9K Relatively High 1
Wilbar Fire Department 5,233 $288.0K Very High 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

13.5%
Poverty Rate
27.2%
Age 65+
20.0%
Disability Rate
9.8%
Uninsured
44.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
16.3%
Mobile Homes
29.1%
Vacancy Rate
10.0%
Wood Heat
$60,350
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

13
Last 10 Years
19
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
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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