Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Shelby County, AL

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 63.3 Relatively High

230,211
Population
44
Departments
172
Stations
55
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
2.42
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 67
Life Safety per 100k
1.05
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
29th highest of 67
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$72.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
5th highest of 67
Property Loss per Resident
$315
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
33rd highest of 67

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 Shelby County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 52% of the life-safety total.

Shelby County carries an expected 2 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $72.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 67 Alabama counties. Nationally, Shelby County ranks 232nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1651st for life safety per 100k residents, 298th for property loss, and 1741st 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 Shelby 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 Shelby County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

68%
31%
Property (buildings): $72.4M (68.5%)
Life safety: $33.1M (31.3%)
Agriculture: $225K (0.2%)

Total expected annual loss: $105,774,723 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)

Tornado
$17.3M
Cold Wave
$6.7M
Heat Wave
$3.3M
Inland Flooding
$2.1M
Lightning
$1.5M
Strong Wind
$1.4M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$53.5M
Tornado
$14.7M
Earthquake
$2.6M
Hurricane
$432K
Hail
$388K
Wildfire
$257K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Shelby 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

32%
18%
48%
Career: 32% (14)
Combination: 18% (8)
Volunteer: 48% (21)
Unreported: 2% (1)
Residents per Station
1,338
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
74.7
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 44 departments registered in NERIS Public for Shelby County, AL. 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 Shelby 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 44 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Rex Lake Fire District 578,921 $65.8M Relatively Moderate 0
Mountain Brook Fire Department 557,984 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 3
Homewood Fire & Rescue Service 557,735 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 5
City Of Brighton Fire Department 557,644 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 1
Gardendale Fire And Rescue 557,644 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 5
Lipscomb Fire & Rescue 557,644 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 0
Tarrant Fire & Rescue 557,644 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 1
Trussville Fire And Rescue 557,644 $62.8M Relatively Moderate 4
Birmingham Fire And Rescue Service Department 224,087 $25.7M Relatively Moderate 62
North Shelby County Fire And Emergency Medical District 183,067 $25.6M Relatively High 3
Eastern Valley Fire District 105,588 $11.3M Relatively Moderate 1
Hoover Fire Department 60,803 $7.4M Relatively High 13
Alabaster Fire Department 44,595 $6.2M Relatively Moderate 6
Saginaw Volunteer Fire Department 44,595 $6.2M Relatively Moderate 1
Pelham Fire Department 28,457 $4.7M Relatively High 12
Jemison Fire Department 36,494 $4.7M Relatively Moderate 2
Helena Fire Department 35,590 $4.7M Relatively Moderate 5
Mt High Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue Squad 35,768 $4.6M Relatively High 1
Forestdale Fire District 35,707 $4.2M Relatively Moderate 6
Cahaba Valley Fire & Emergency Medical Rescue District 30,362 $4.0M Relatively Moderate 4
Chelsea Fire And Rescue 27,509 $3.8M Relatively High 3
Leeds Fire Department 31,023 $3.4M Relatively Moderate 2
Green Pond Fire & Rescue Service 26,765 $3.3M Relatively Moderate 3
City Of Westover Fire Deparment 23,704 $3.3M Relatively High 1
Westover Volunteer Fire And Rescue 23,704 $3.3M Relatively High 1
Fourmile Fire And Rescue 23,110 $3.3M Relatively High 1
Ricetown Volunteer Fire & Rescue 24,101 $3.1M Relatively Moderate 1
Calera Fire & Rescue 21,946 $2.8M Relatively Moderate 3
Childersburg Fire & Rescue 18,543 $2.6M Relatively High 1
West Shelby Fire & Rescue District, Inc. 17,866 $2.3M Relatively Moderate 2
Summer Hill Volunteer Fire Department 17,561 $2.2M Relatively Moderate 1
Montevallo Fire & Rescue 13,524 $1.8M Relatively Low 2
Kingdom Volunteer Fire Department 12,448 $1.7M Relatively High 1
Brierfield Fire And Rescue 12,029 $1.6M Relatively Moderate 3
Shelby Volunteer Fire Department 11,692 $1.5M Relatively High 3
Dry Valley Fire And Rescue 8,421 $1.3M Relatively Moderate 1
Columbiana Fire Department 9,877 $1.2M Relatively High 2
Dunnavant Volunteer Fire Department 6,895 $1.1M Relatively Moderate 0
Union Grove Volunteer Fire Department 8,594 $966.0K Relatively High 2
Harpersville Fire Department 5,216 $793.8K Relatively High 1
County 17 Fire & Rescue 6,188 $716.9K Relatively Low 1
Vincent Volunteer Fire Department 4,033 $619.2K Very High 1
Wilsonville Fire Department 4,361 $616.9K Relatively High 0
Indian Ford Fire District 4,229 $500.0K Relatively Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.2%
Poverty Rate
16.8%
Age 65+
12.2%
Disability Rate
6.4%
Uninsured
16.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
7.4%
Mobile Homes
5.6%
Vacancy Rate
0.2%
Wood Heat
$106,018
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

8
Last 10 Years
16
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
Most Frequent

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