Bailey, NC
Bailey wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Bailey at the 31st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 489 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bailey at the 32nd percentile, close to its 31st-percentile risk score.
Bailey's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 68.3% of Bailey's 489 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 31.3% Direct and 0.4% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Bailey against the rest of the country
Bailey ranks lower within North Carolina (4th percentile statewide) than its 31st national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bailey ranks 21,626 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,555 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 744 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Bailey and the insurance market
Bailey's moderate wildfire rating (31st 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 Bailey
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Bailey (68.3% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Bailey's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bailey's 21,626-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bailey's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.