Altamahaw, NC
Altamahaw, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Altamahaw at the 54th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 321 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Altamahaw's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 56th percentile nationally.
Altamahaw's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Altamahaw's 321 counted buildings, 74.5% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Altamahaw ranks
Altamahaw's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (49th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (54th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Altamahaw ranks 14,537 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,068 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 395 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Altamahaw and the insurance market
Altamahaw'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 Altamahaw
Altamahaw's 74.5% 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
Altamahaw's 54th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Altamahaw, see the exposure-zones guide.