WildfireRiskFinder

Cape Colony, NC

Cape Colony, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers

Elevated
50thpercentile nationally

Cape Colony sits at the 50th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 494 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cape Colony at the 48th percentile, close to its 50th-percentile risk score.

Cape Colony's building exposure, zone by zone

494Total buildings
79.6%Direct exposure
13.4%Indirect exposure
7.1%Minimal exposure

Direct exposure dominates in Cape Colony: 79.6% of its 494 buildings, versus 13.4% Indirect and 7.1% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.

Where Cape Colony ranks

Cape Colony's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (38th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (50th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cape Colony ranks 15,764 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,460 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 481 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.

Cape Colony and the insurance market

Cape Colony's elevated rating (50th 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 79.6% of Cape Colony 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.

Where Cape Colony's figures come from

Cape Colony's 50th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cape Colony's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.