Cricket, NC
Cricket wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Cricket at the 40th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,238 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cricket at the 43rd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Cricket's buildings actually sit
96.5% of Cricket's 1,238 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,194 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 3.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Cricket against the rest of the country
Cricket's 40th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 16th ranking inside North Carolina does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 24 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cricket ranks 18,848 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,423 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 650 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
Cricket's elevated wildfire rating (40th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 96.5% of Cricket 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
Cricket's 40th-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 Cricket, see the exposure-zones guide.