Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Gilmer County, WV

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 66.9 Relatively High

7,288
Population
8
Departments
11
Stations
3
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
0.03
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
50th highest of 55
Life Safety per 100k
0.39
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
30th highest of 55
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.5M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
47th highest of 55
Property Loss per Resident
$757
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
8th highest of 55

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 Gilmer County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 39% of the life-safety total.

Gilmer County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.5M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 55 West Virginia counties. Nationally, Gilmer County ranks 3092nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2789th for life safety per 100k residents, 2144th for property loss, and 303rd 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 Gilmer 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 Gilmer County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

93%
Property (buildings): $5.5M (93.1%)
Life safety: $389K (6.6%)
Agriculture: $22K (0.4%)

Total expected annual loss: $5,928,005 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
$152K
Landslide
$60K
Lightning
$58K
Heat Wave
$38K
Strong Wind
$31K
Inland Flooding
$29K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$5.4M
Strong Wind
$39K
Hail
$38K
Hurricane
$38K
Earthquake
$19K
Tornado
$13K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Gilmer 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

100%
Volunteer: 100% (8)
Residents per Station
663
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
150.9
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 8 departments registered in NERIS Public for Gilmer County, WV. 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 Gilmer 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 8 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Smithville Volunteer Fire Department 13,586 $976.7K Relatively High 0
Greenwood Volunteer Fire Department 15,305 $728.6K Relatively High 1
Frametown Volunteer Fire Department 11,248 $699.4K Very High 1
Arnoldsburg Volunteer Fire Department 2,935 $405.6K Very High 1
Upper West Fork Volunteer Fire Department 2,935 $405.6K Very High 1
Gilmer County Volunteer Fire Department 7,288 $389.4K Relatively High 5
Flatwoods Community Volunteer Fire Department 4,742 $294.1K Very High 1
Bancs Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 7,711 $264.7K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

19.0%
Poverty Rate
18.2%
Age 65+
14.4%
Disability Rate
6.7%
Uninsured
62.3%
Pre-1980 Housing
25.4%
Mobile Homes
27.7%
Vacancy Rate
1.7%
Wood Heat
$37,882
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
17
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