Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Berkeley County, SC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 90.5 Very High

246,802
Population
24
Departments
337
Stations
48
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
3.39
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
2nd highest of 46
Life Safety per 100k
1.37
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
7th highest of 46
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$167.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 46
Property Loss per Resident
$677
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
9th highest of 46

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 Berkeley County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 52% of the life-safety total.

Berkeley County carries an expected 3 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $167.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 46 South Carolina counties. Nationally, Berkeley County ranks 151st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1173rd for life safety per 100k residents, 119th for property loss, and 434th 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 Berkeley 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 Berkeley County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

78%
22%
Property (buildings): $167.0M (78.2%)
Life safety: $46.4M (21.7%)
Agriculture: $104K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $213,548,226 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
$24.2M
Hurricane
$9.1M
Cold Wave
$3.9M
Tornado
$3.1M
Strong Wind
$1.3M
Lightning
$1.3M

By property loss ($/yr)

Hurricane
$107.3M
Earthquake
$29.0M
Inland Flooding
$24.5M
Coastal Flooding
$2.2M
Wildfire
$1.5M
Tornado
$1.4M

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Berkeley 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

17%
42%
33%
8%
Career: 17% (4)
Combination: 42% (10)
Volunteer: 33% (8)
Unreported: 8% (2)
Residents per Station
732
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
136.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 24 departments registered in NERIS Public for Berkeley County, SC. 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 Berkeley 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 24 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Charleston Fire Department 141,741 $31.5M Very High 22
Dorchester County Fire Rescue 88,584 $17.8M Very High 16
Summerville Fire-Rescue 49,951 $14.5M Very High 11
Caromi Fire Department 68,663 $13.9M Very High 2
South Berkeley Fire District 65,786 $13.2M Very High 9
Mount Pleasant Fire Department 81,282 $12.0M Very High 8
Central Berkeley Fire-EMS 68,388 $10.4M Very High 9
Moncks Corner Rural Fire Department 59,018 $10.3M Very High 3
Orangeburg County Fire District 69,493 $9.7M Relatively High 46
City Of Goose Creek Fire Department 42,865 $8.8M Very High 4
Pelham Batesville Fire Department 76,919 $5.1M Relatively High 6
Moncks Corner Fire Rescue 26,711 $4.3M Very High 2
Hanahan Fire Department 19,080 $4.0M Very High 3
C & B Fire Department 20,504 $3.6M Very High 8
East Lake Fire & Rescue 18,129 $3.4M Relatively High 50
Langley Fire Department 40,045 $3.0M Relatively Moderate 1
Pimlico Rural Volunteer Fire Department 19,886 $2.9M Very High 4
Slater-Marietta Fire Department 23,831 $2.6M Relatively Moderate 5
Cross Hill Fire Department 13,909 $2.0M Relatively High 4
Sandy Run - Calhoun Volunteer Fire Department 14,782 $1.9M Relatively Moderate 1
Eutawville Fire Department 9,342 $1.8M Relatively High 48
Awendaw-McClellanville Fire Department 11,839 $1.4M Very High 8
Holly Hill Fire Department 5,104 $1.3M Very High 47
St. Stephen City Fire Department 3,891 $843.2K Very High 20
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

9.9%
Poverty Rate
14.8%
Age 65+
13.4%
Disability Rate
9.2%
Uninsured
19.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
13.6%
Mobile Homes
6.8%
Vacancy Rate
0.1%
Wood Heat
$85,935
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

19
Last 10 Years
26
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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