Bell Arthur, NC
Bell Arthur wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Bell Arthur at the 43rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 312 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bell Arthur at the 42nd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Bell Arthur's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 63.8% of Bell Arthur's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 36.2% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 199 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Bell Arthur compares
Inside North Carolina, Bell Arthur sits at just the 21st percentile even though it scores 43rd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bell Arthur ranks 17,998 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,325 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 608 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bell Arthur's elevated rating (43rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 63.8% of Bell Arthur in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bell Arthur's 17,998-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bell Arthur, see the exposure-zones guide.