Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Madison County, NC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 51.6 Relatively Moderate

21,867
Population
18
Departments
26
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
0.19
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
69th highest of 100
Life Safety per 100k
0.87
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
33rd highest of 100
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$6.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
89th highest of 100
Property Loss per Resident
$277
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
54th highest of 100

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 Madison County, the largest single contributor is Inland Flooding, 32% of the life-safety total.

Madison County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $6.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 100 North Carolina counties. Nationally, Madison County ranks 2024th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1958th for life safety per 100k residents, 2056th for property loss, and 2041st 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 Madison 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 Madison County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

66%
28%
Property (buildings): $6.0M (66.2%)
Life safety: $2.6M (28.4%)
Agriculture: $486K (5.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $9,129,836 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 5% of expected annual loss in Madison 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)

Inland Flooding
$824K
Cold Wave
$739K
Lightning
$489K
Strong Wind
$207K
Tornado
$133K
Landslide
$94K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$5.2M
Tornado
$241K
Earthquake
$201K
Ice Storm
$147K
Wildfire
$75K
Landslide
$61K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Madison 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

39%
61%
Combination: 39% (7)
Volunteer: 61% (11)
Residents per Station
841
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
118.9
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 18 departments registered in NERIS Public for Madison County, NC. 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 Madison 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 18 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Tryonota Volunteer Fire Department 30,478 $4.2M Relatively Moderate 2
Leicester Volunteer Fire Department 21,576 $2.2M Relatively Moderate 3
Jupiter Volunteer Fire Department 19,054 $1.7M Relatively Moderate 2
Mars Hill Fire Department 15,210 $1.6M Relatively Moderate 2
Fines Creek Volunteer Fire Department 7,889 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Marshall Community Volunteer Fire Department Inc. 8,661 $1.2M Relatively Moderate 1
Ebbs Chapel Fire Department 8,883 $1.1M Relatively Low 1
Barnardsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc. 10,740 $1.0M Relatively High 1
Southside Volunteer Fire Department 13,557 $959.6K Relatively Moderate 2
Spring Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 6,544 $899.3K Relatively High 2
Big Pine Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 4,232 $517.2K Relatively Moderate 1
Caney Branch Volunteer Fire Department 7,768 $435.0K Relatively Low 1
Camp Creek Volunteer Fire Department 8,538 $417.4K Relatively Low 1
Embreeville Volunteer Fire Department 9,579 $414.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Country Volunteer Fire Department 2,270 $315.5K Relatively High 1
Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department 2,270 $315.5K Relatively High 1
Saint James Volunteer Fire Department 3,534 $232.4K Relatively Low 1
Del Rio Volunteer Fire Department 2,171 $196.4K Relatively Moderate 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

12.1%
Poverty Rate
23.2%
Age 65+
18.1%
Disability Rate
8.4%
Uninsured
39.3%
Pre-1980 Housing
21.4%
Mobile Homes
26.5%
Vacancy Rate
13.0%
Wood Heat
$59,265
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

12
Last 10 Years
17
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

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