Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Scott County, VA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 66.3 Relatively High

21,479
Population
8
Departments
15
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
0.09
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
76th highest of 133
Life Safety per 100k
0.41
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
38th highest of 133
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$7.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
55th highest of 133
Property Loss per Resident
$326
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
20th 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 Scott County, the largest single contributor is Inland Flooding, 29% of the life-safety total.

Scott County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $7.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 133 Virginia counties. Nationally, Scott County ranks 2713th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2750th for life safety per 100k residents, 1897th for property loss, and 1661st 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 Scott 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 Scott County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

84%
14%
Property (buildings): $7.0M (83.6%)
Life safety: $1.2M (14.3%)
Agriculture: $181K (2.2%)

Total expected annual loss: $8,376,145 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)

Inland Flooding
$341K
Strong Wind
$252K
Cold Wave
$187K
Lightning
$119K
Earthquake
$86K
Landslide
$78K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$6.5M
Earthquake
$289K
Tornado
$77K
Strong Wind
$64K
Landslide
$46K
Wildfire
$25K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Scott 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

75%
25%
Volunteer: 75% (6)
Unreported: 25% (2)
Residents per Station
1,432
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
69.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 8 departments registered in NERIS Public for Scott 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 Scott 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 8 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Wise Fire Department 23,972 $2.3M Relatively Moderate 3
Copper Creek-Moccasin Volunteer Fire Department 12,005 $1.6M Relatively Moderate 2
Big Stone Gap Volunteer Fire Department 14,933 $1.5M Relatively High 2
Carter's Valley Fire Department 24,882 $1.4M Relatively Moderate 3
Gate City Volunteer Fire Department 14,022 $766.3K Relatively High 1
Fort Blackmore VFD 6,506 $391.0K Relatively High 1
Hiltons VFD 8,032 $381.4K Relatively High 2
Nickelsville Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 7,081 $343.9K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

20.2%
Poverty Rate
25.3%
Age 65+
27.7%
Disability Rate
5.9%
Uninsured
58.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
19.7%
Mobile Homes
22.5%
Vacancy Rate
3.2%
Wood Heat
$47,881
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

7
Last 10 Years
15
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.

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