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.
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 Buncombe County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 66% of the life-safety total.
Buncombe County carries an expected 2 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $56.5M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 100 North Carolina counties. Nationally, Buncombe County ranks 324th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2304th for life safety per 100k residents, 356th for property loss, and 2722nd 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 Buncombe 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 Buncombe County See what a department seesWhat Drives the Loss
Total expected annual loss: $82,367,915 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)
By property loss ($/yr)
Census Tract Risk Map
Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Buncombe 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
Department composition covers the 22 departments registered in NERIS Public for Buncombe 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 Buncombe 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.
| Department ▲ | Est. Population ▲ | Life-Safety Loss ▼ | NRI Rating ▲ | Stations ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asheville Regional Airport Department Of Public Safety | 166,049 | $15.2M | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Asheville Fire Department | 82,075 | $7.5M | Relatively Moderate | 13 |
| Tryonota Volunteer Fire Department | 30,478 | $4.2M | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Skyland Fire Department | 41,956 | $3.7M | Relatively Moderate | 7 |
| Enka-Candler Fire And Rescue, Inc. | 41,290 | $3.7M | Relatively Moderate | 3 |
| Fletcher Fire And Rescue Department | 29,896 | $3.5M | Relatively High | 3 |
| West Buncombe Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. | 24,579 | $2.2M | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Leicester Volunteer Fire Department | 21,576 | $2.2M | Relatively Moderate | 3 |
| Weaverville Fire Department | 22,155 | $1.9M | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Jupiter Volunteer Fire Department | 19,054 | $1.7M | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Reems Creek Fire Department | 18,004 | $1.7M | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Swannanoa Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue Squad, Inc. | 18,431 | $1.5M | Relatively High | 2 |
| North Canton United Fire Department | 8,848 | $1.4M | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Fairview Fire Department | 13,881 | $1.4M | Relatively High | 5 |
| Black Mountain Fire Department | 12,975 | $1.4M | Relatively Moderate | 3 |
| French Broad Volunteer Fire & Rescue Inc. | 11,926 | $1.1M | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Barnardsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc. | 10,740 | $1.0M | Relatively High | 1 |
| Reynolds Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. | 10,888 | $988.9K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Upper Hominy Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department, Inc. | 9,793 | $852.9K | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Woodfin Fire Department | 6,423 | $541.0K | Relatively Low | 1 |
| Riceville Volunteer Fire Department | 5,958 | $521.4K | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Broad River Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, Inc. | 2,853 | $333.2K | Relatively Moderate | 3 |
Risk Snapshot
FEMA Disaster Declarations
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