Columbia, NC
How exposed is Columbia to wildfire?
USFS scores Columbia at the 71st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 541 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Columbia at the 69th percentile, close to its 71st-percentile risk score.
Where Columbia's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 70.4% of Columbia's 541 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 29.6% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Columbia against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Columbia's 71st national percentile and its 71st 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, Columbia ranks 9,305 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,704 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 228 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Columbia
Columbia's high rating (71st 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Columbia (70.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Columbia's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 541 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Columbia. The exposure-zones guide covers what Columbia's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.