Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Rhea County, TN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 74.8 Relatively High

33,992
Population
9
Departments
45
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
0.27
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
65th highest of 95
Life Safety per 100k
0.80
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
70th highest of 95
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$9.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
39th highest of 95
Property Loss per Resident
$285
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
29th highest of 95

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 Rhea County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 31% of the life-safety total.

Rhea County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $9.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 95 Tennessee counties. Nationally, Rhea County ranks 1626th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2085th for life safety per 100k residents, 1544th for property loss, and 1973rd 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 Rhea 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 Rhea County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

72%
28%
Property (buildings): $9.7M (71.7%)
Life safety: $3.7M (27.6%)
Agriculture: $96K (0.7%)

Total expected annual loss: $13,518,676 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
$1.2M
Tornado
$674K
Inland Flooding
$646K
Strong Wind
$523K
Earthquake
$264K
Lightning
$261K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$7.8M
Earthquake
$781K
Tornado
$644K
Strong Wind
$208K
Hail
$75K
Hurricane
$42K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Rhea 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

22%
78%
Combination: 22% (2)
Volunteer: 78% (7)
Residents per Station
755
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
132.4
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Rhea County, TN. 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 Rhea 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 9 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Cumberland County Fire Department 59,945 $8.1M Relatively Moderate 17
Rhea County Volunteer Fire Department 29,533 $3.2M Relatively High 14
Dayton Fire Department 23,290 $2.6M Relatively High 4
West Roane County Volunteer Fire Department 13,791 $2.1M Relatively Moderate 3
Rigsby Volunteer Fire Department 10,628 $1.6M Relatively High 2
Luminary-Frostbite Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 8,382 $1.3M Relatively High 1
Spring City Volunteer Fire Department 10,702 $1.1M Relatively High 2
Graysville Volunteer Fire Department 7,949 $983.9K Very High 1
Brayton Volunteer Fire Department 6,246 $942.4K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

15.9%
Poverty Rate
19.8%
Age 65+
19.6%
Disability Rate
12.9%
Uninsured
38.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
19.1%
Mobile Homes
12.8%
Vacancy Rate
2.4%
Wood Heat
$56,155
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
16
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