Advance, NC
Advance wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Advance at the 54th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,030 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Advance's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 58th percentile nationally.
Advance's building exposure, zone by zone
98.5% of Advance's 1,030 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,015 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 1.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Advance ranks
Advance scores 54th nationally and 49th within North Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Advance ranks 14,440 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,725 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 391 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Advance
Advance's elevated wildfire rating (54th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Advance
Advance's 98.5% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Advance's 14,440-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Advance, see the exposure-zones guide.