Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Burke County, GA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 59.8 Relatively Moderate

24,470
Population
5
Departments
29
Stations
7
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
0.18
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
71st highest of 159
Life Safety per 100k
0.72
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
58th highest of 159
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
89th highest of 159
Property Loss per Resident
$218
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
84th highest of 159

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 Burke County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 37% of the life-safety total.

Burke County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 159 Georgia counties. Nationally, Burke County ranks 2105th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2208th for life safety per 100k residents, 2183rd for property loss, and 2620th 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 Burke 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 Burke County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

57%
26%
17%
Property (buildings): $5.3M (57.4%)
Life safety: $2.4M (26.0%)
Agriculture: $1.5M (16.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $9,274,322 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 17% of expected annual loss in Burke 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
$888K
Heat Wave
$587K
Earthquake
$290K
Cold Wave
$213K
Strong Wind
$168K
Hail
$95K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$2.9M
Hurricane
$1.0M
Earthquake
$674K
Tornado
$438K
Ice Storm
$102K
Strong Wind
$98K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Burke 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

20%
40%
40%
Career: 20% (1)
Combination: 40% (2)
Volunteer: 40% (2)
Residents per Station
844
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
118.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 5 departments registered in NERIS Public for Burke County, GA. 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 Burke 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 5 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Emanuel County Rural Fire Department 51,734 $4.8M Relatively Moderate 14
Burke County Emergency Management Agency 24,470 $2.4M Relatively Moderate 12
Waynesboro Fire Department 11,621 $1.1M Relatively High 1
Hephzibah Fire-Rescue 9,719 $802.5K Relatively Moderate 1
Summertown Volunteer Fire Department 8,393 $711.4K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

18.3%
Poverty Rate
17.7%
Age 65+
16.3%
Disability Rate
13.8%
Uninsured
47.6%
Pre-1980 Housing
30.0%
Mobile Homes
18.7%
Vacancy Rate
1.2%
Wood Heat
$57,676
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

13
Last 10 Years
17
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.

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