Denver, NC
How exposed is Denver to wildfire?
USFS scores Denver at the 54th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,560 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Denver's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 57th percentile nationally.
Where Denver's buildings actually sit
71.6% of Denver's 1,560 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,117 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 28.4% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Denver against the rest of the country
Denver's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (48th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (54th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Denver ranks 14,635 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,922 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 399 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Denver and the insurance market
Denver's elevated wildfire rating (54th 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.
Hardening a home in Denver
Denver's 71.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Denver's 54th-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 Denver, see the exposure-zones guide.