Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Saluda County, SC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 63.5 Relatively High

19,131
Population
12
Departments
44
Stations
6
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
0.16
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
42nd highest of 46
Life Safety per 100k
0.83
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
27th highest of 46
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.2M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
40th highest of 46
Property Loss per Resident
$271
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
23rd 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 Saluda County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 45% of the life-safety total.

Saluda County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.2M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 46 South Carolina counties. Nationally, Saluda County ranks 2217th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2024th for life safety per 100k residents, 2209th for property loss, and 2093rd 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 Saluda 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 Saluda County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

63%
27%
10%
Property (buildings): $5.2M (63.5%)
Life safety: $2.2M (26.6%)
Agriculture: $810K (9.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $8,169,410 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 10% of expected annual loss in Saluda 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
$976K
Cold Wave
$365K
Strong Wind
$243K
Heat Wave
$189K
Earthquake
$116K
Hail
$108K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$3.9M
Tornado
$353K
Earthquake
$321K
Hurricane
$290K
Ice Storm
$98K
Strong Wind
$94K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Saluda 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

8%
17%
75%
Career: 8% (1)
Combination: 17% (2)
Volunteer: 75% (9)
Residents per Station
435
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
230.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Saluda 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 Saluda 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 12 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Lexington County Fire Service 241,954 $24.9M Relatively Moderate 31
Saluda County Fire Service 33,306 $3.9M Relatively Moderate 0
Batesburg-Leesville Fire Department 28,930 $2.9M Relatively Moderate 4
Johnston Fire Department 18,880 $1.8M Relatively High 1
Saluda Fire Department 13,419 $1.5M Relatively High 1
Old Town Fire And Rescue 11,533 $1.3M Relatively High 1
Midland Volunteer Fire Department 9,011 $999.1K Relatively Moderate 1
Mayson Fire Department 7,419 $843.7K Relatively High 1
Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department 7,125 $740.0K Relatively High 1
Ridge Spring Fire Department 7,759 $664.1K Relatively High 1
Circle Volunteer Fire Department 4,638 $558.6K Relatively Low 1
Tri-County Volunteer Fire Department 1,712 $293.1K Relatively Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

18.7%
Poverty Rate
20.6%
Age 65+
16.8%
Disability Rate
17.9%
Uninsured
40.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
27.8%
Mobile Homes
19.6%
Vacancy Rate
2.2%
Wood Heat
$54,627
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

14
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo