Burnsville, NC
How exposed is Burnsville to wildfire?
Burnsville sits at the 75th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,037 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Burnsville'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
Most of Burnsville's buildings (59.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Burnsville compares
Burnsville's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (77th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (75th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Burnsville ranks 7,948 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,683 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 179 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Burnsville
Burnsville's high rating (75th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Burnsville's 59.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Burnsville's 75th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Burnsville, see the exposure-zones guide.