Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Amherst County, VA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 29.5 Relatively Low

31,485
Population
6
Departments
23
Stations
10
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
0.09
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
69th highest of 133
Life Safety per 100k
0.30
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
92nd highest of 133
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.1M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
73rd highest of 133
Property Loss per Resident
$161
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
101st 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 Amherst County, the largest single contributor is Strong Wind, 38% of the life-safety total.

Amherst County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.1M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 133 Virginia counties. Nationally, Amherst County ranks 2655th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2993rd for life safety per 100k residents, 2226th for property loss, and 3054th 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 Amherst 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 Amherst County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

78%
20%
Property (buildings): $5.1M (78.0%)
Life safety: $1.3M (20.0%)
Agriculture: $132K (2.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $6,485,830 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)

Strong Wind
$489K
Lightning
$191K
Inland Flooding
$168K
Tornado
$126K
Cold Wave
$93K
Earthquake
$89K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.2M
Hurricane
$315K
Earthquake
$209K
Tornado
$124K
Strong Wind
$86K
Ice Storm
$28K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Amherst 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

17%
83%
Career: 17% (1)
Volunteer: 83% (5)
Residents per Station
1,369
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
73.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 6 departments registered in NERIS Public for Amherst 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 Amherst 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 6 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Lynchburg Fire Department 76,892 $2.1M Relatively Low 16
Monelison Volunteer Fire Department 31,485 $1.3M Relatively Low 3
South River District Volunteer Fire Department 12,625 $841.1K Relatively High 1
Pedlar Volunteer Fire Department And Rescue Squad 13,492 $590.0K Relatively Moderate 1
Big Island Volunteer Fire Company 17,041 $560.5K Relatively Moderate 1
Gladstone Volunteer Fire Department 10,878 $411.9K Relatively Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

10.8%
Poverty Rate
21.8%
Age 65+
16.2%
Disability Rate
6.8%
Uninsured
52.9%
Pre-1980 Housing
11.5%
Mobile Homes
11.6%
Vacancy Rate
3.3%
Wood Heat
$69,209
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
9
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo