Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Wythe County, VA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 64.9 Relatively High

28,188
Population
11
Departments
17
Stations
8
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
0.48
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
14th highest of 133
Life Safety per 100k
1.71
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
5th highest of 133
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$4.8M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
78th highest of 133
Property Loss per Resident
$169
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
94th 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 Wythe County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 72% of the life-safety total.

Wythe County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $4.8M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 133 Virginia counties. Nationally, Wythe County ranks 1095th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 823rd for life safety per 100k residents, 2285th for property loss, and 3001st 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 Wythe 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 Wythe County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

40%
56%
Property (buildings): $4.8M (40.1%)
Life safety: $6.6M (55.8%)
Agriculture: $483K (4.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $11,852,814 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)

Cold Wave
$4.8M
Inland Flooding
$880K
Strong Wind
$644K
Lightning
$98K
Earthquake
$83K
Tornado
$45K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.2M
Earthquake
$282K
Hurricane
$106K
Strong Wind
$74K
Tornado
$60K
Hail
$29K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Wythe 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

9%
91%
Career: 9% (1)
Volunteer: 91% (10)
Residents per Station
1,658
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
60.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 11 departments registered in NERIS Public for Wythe 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 Wythe 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 11 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Wytheville Fire Department 23,552 $5.5M Relatively High 2
Galax Volunteer Fire Department 24,833 $4.7M Relatively Moderate 2
Hillsville Volunteer Fire Department 23,231 $4.1M Relatively Moderate 3
Rural Retreat Volunteer Fire Department 15,573 $3.8M Relatively High 1
Max Meadows Volunteer Fire Department 13,831 $3.2M Relatively High 1
Ivanhoe Volunteer Fire Department 13,362 $2.9M Relatively High 1
Eggleston Volunteer Fire Department 14,883 $2.1M Relatively Moderate 1
Fries Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue Squad 10,945 $2.1M Relatively Moderate 2
Speedwell Volunteer Fire Department 7,680 $1.7M Relatively High 2
Barren Springs Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 4,634 $1.2M Relatively High 1
Ceres Volunteer Fire Department 2,198 $689.5K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

15.2%
Poverty Rate
22.3%
Age 65+
18.7%
Disability Rate
6.0%
Uninsured
51.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
19.0%
Mobile Homes
10.7%
Vacancy Rate
7.6%
Wood Heat
$57,787
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

7
Last 10 Years
11
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