Caroleen, NC
How exposed is Caroleen to wildfire?
Caroleen's 442 buildings earn a 66th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Caroleen at the 70th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Caroleen's buildings actually sit
74.9% of Caroleen's 442 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 331 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 25.1% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Caroleen compares
There's little gap between Caroleen's 66th national percentile and its 67th percentile inside North Carolina, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Caroleen ranks 10,599 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,422 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 259 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Caroleen and the insurance market
Caroleen's 66th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 74.9% of Caroleen 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 Caroleen's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 442 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Caroleen. The exposure-zones guide covers what Caroleen's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.