Atkinson, NC
How exposed is Atkinson to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Atkinson lands at the 78th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 262 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Atkinson's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 78th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Atkinson: 64.5% of its 262 buildings, versus 35.5% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Atkinson compares
Atkinson scores 78th nationally and 80th 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, Atkinson ranks 7,063 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,778 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 155 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Atkinson and the insurance market
Atkinson's 78th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Atkinson's 64.5% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 262 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Atkinson. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Atkinson, see the exposure-zones guide.