Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Chester County, SC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 41.8 Relatively Moderate

32,182
Population
9
Departments
33
Stations
11
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
0.26
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
36th highest of 46
Life Safety per 100k
0.82
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
31st highest of 46
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.9M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
37th highest of 46
Property Loss per Resident
$182
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
44th 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 Chester County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 46% of the life-safety total.

Chester County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.9M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 46 South Carolina counties. Nationally, Chester County ranks 1651st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2041st for life safety per 100k residents, 2082nd for property loss, and 2916th 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 Chester 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 Chester County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

54%
33%
13%
Property (buildings): $5.9M (54.1%)
Life safety: $3.6M (33.3%)
Agriculture: $1.4M (12.5%)

Total expected annual loss: $10,840,873 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 13% of expected annual loss in Chester 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)

Tornado
$1.7M
Strong Wind
$556K
Lightning
$489K
Cold Wave
$290K
Heat Wave
$194K
Earthquake
$188K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.0M
Tornado
$738K
Earthquake
$501K
Ice Storm
$309K
Hurricane
$140K
Strong Wind
$94K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Chester 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

56%
44%
Combination: 56% (5)
Volunteer: 44% (4)
Residents per Station
975
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
102.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Chester 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 Chester 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 9 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Fairfield County Fire Service 20,254 $2.9M Relatively Moderate 17
Richburg Volunteer Fire Department 21,966 $2.5M Relatively Moderate 3
Chester Fire Department 20,256 $2.3M Relatively Moderate 4
South Chester Fire Department 11,734 $1.5M Relatively Moderate 2
Great Falls Fire Department 9,912 $1.1M Relatively Low 1
Fort Lawn Volunteer Fire Department 9,997 $1.1M Relatively Low 1
Rossville Fire Department 6,014 $700.7K Relatively Moderate 2
North Chester Volunteer Fire Department 5,694 $615.0K Relatively Moderate 2
Crossroad Fire Department 2,839 $332.6K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

18.7%
Poverty Rate
19.2%
Age 65+
14.2%
Disability Rate
11.7%
Uninsured
50.6%
Pre-1980 Housing
23.6%
Mobile Homes
11.1%
Vacancy Rate
0.8%
Wood Heat
$52,952
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

15
Last 10 Years
20
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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