Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Roanoke County, VA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 30.2 Relatively Low

97,023
Population
4
Departments
32
Stations
22
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
33rd highest of 133
Life Safety per 100k
0.26
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
108th highest of 133
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$16.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
26th highest of 133
Property Loss per Resident
$169
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
95th highest of 133

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 Roanoke County, the largest single contributor is Strong Wind, 35% of the life-safety total.

Roanoke County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $16.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 133 Virginia counties. Nationally, Roanoke County ranks 1685th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 3061st for life safety per 100k residents, 1054th for property loss, and 3002nd 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 Roanoke 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 Roanoke County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

82%
18%
Property (buildings): $16.4M (82.3%)
Life safety: $3.5M (17.6%)
Agriculture: $22K (0.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $19,906,469 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)

Strong Wind
$1.2M
Cold Wave
$987K
Lightning
$513K
Tornado
$180K
Inland Flooding
$143K
Heat Wave
$104K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$14.6M
Hurricane
$567K
Earthquake
$393K
Strong Wind
$366K
Tornado
$230K
Hail
$98K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Roanoke 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

50%
25%
25%
Career: 50% (2)
Combination: 25% (1)
Volunteer: 25% (1)
Residents per Station
3,032
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
33.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 4 departments registered in NERIS Public for Roanoke County, VA. 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 Roanoke 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 4 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Roanoke Fire- Ems 94,721 $3.8M Relatively Moderate 12
Roanoke County Fire and Rescue 93,255 $3.4M Relatively Low 14
Salem Fire-EMS Department 23,521 $1.4M Relatively Moderate 5
Elliston Volunteer Fire Department 8,803 $596.3K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.3%
Poverty Rate
22.1%
Age 65+
14.6%
Disability Rate
3.9%
Uninsured
54.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
1.8%
Mobile Homes
6.2%
Vacancy Rate
1.5%
Wood Heat
$85,600
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
12
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
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