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 Burke County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 28% of the life-safety total.
Burke County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $17.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 100 North Carolina counties. Nationally, Burke County ranks 1574th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2937th for life safety per 100k residents, 981st for property loss, and 2753rd 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 Burke 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 Burke County See what a department seesWhat Drives the Loss
Total expected annual loss: $22,809,035 per year. Life safety is shown here in dollars, at FEMA's $13.7M value of statistical life, so the three shares sum to the total.
Agriculture is 5% of expected annual loss in Burke County, so total loss overstates property loss here. The property figure above counts building loss only.
Hazards Ranked Two Ways
The hazard that threatens people is often not the hazard that destroys buildings. Both columns cover the same 18 hazards over the same year.
By life-safety loss ($/yr)
By property loss ($/yr)
Census Tract Risk Map
Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Burke 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 23 departments registered in NERIS Public for Burke 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 Burke 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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hickory Fire Department | 54,870 | $2.7M | Relatively Moderate | 8 |
| Morganton Public Safety | 40,938 | $1.8M | Relatively Moderate | 7 |
| West-End Fire/Rescue | 31,470 | $1.8M | Relatively Low | 2 |
| North Catawba Fire Rescue Department | 21,735 | $1.0M | Relatively Low | 2 |
| Triple Community Fire Department, Inc. | 20,518 | $920.5K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Salem Fire And Rescue Protection Association, Inc. | 19,965 | $859.7K | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Oak Hill Fire & Rescue | 18,713 | $831.9K | Relatively Moderate | 5 |
| Gamewell Volunteer Fire Department | 18,845 | $822.1K | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Lovelady Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department Inc | 17,719 | $752.9K | Relatively Low | 2 |
| Enola Volunteer Fire Department | 16,638 | $720.9K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Brendletown Fire & Rescue | 15,761 | $661.8K | Relatively Low | 2 |
| Collettsville Fire & Rescue | 13,418 | $633.7K | Relatively High | 1 |
| Icard Township Fire & Rescue Inc. | 13,528 | $548.5K | Relatively Moderate | 3 |
| George Hildebran Fire/Rescue | 12,030 | $503.0K | Relatively Low | 2 |
| Valdese Fire Department | 10,509 | $465.0K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Rhodhiss Fire Department | 8,372 | $388.8K | Relatively Low | 1 |
| Glen Alpine Volunteer Fire Department | 7,895 | $337.0K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| South Mountains Fire Rescue, Inc. | 7,072 | $323.2K | Relatively Low | 1 |
| Long View Fire Department | 5,824 | $319.9K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Drowning Creek Volunteer Fire Department | 6,229 | $272.7K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Drexel Fire Department | 5,772 | $238.5K | Relatively Moderate | 2 |
| Chesterfield Fire Rescue | 3,927 | $181.0K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
| Jonas Ridge Fire & Rescue | 2,533 | $137.2K | Relatively Moderate | 1 |
Risk Snapshot
FEMA Disaster Declarations
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