Butner, NC
How exposed is Butner to wildfire?
Butner's 3,239 buildings earn a 39th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Butner at the 40th percentile, close to its 39th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 63.5% of Butner's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 36.5% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 2,056 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Butner ranks
Butner's 39th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 14th ranking inside North Carolina does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 25 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Butner ranks 19,292 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,119 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 667 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
At the 39th national percentile, Butner rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 63.5% of Butner 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
Butner's 39th-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 Butner, see the exposure-zones guide.