Earl, NC
Earl, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Earl's 211 buildings earn a 61st-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Earl at the 64th percentile, close to its 61st-percentile risk score.
Where Earl's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Earl: 74.9% of its 211 buildings, versus 25.1% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Earl against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Earl's 61st national percentile and its 59th 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, Earl ranks 12,457 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,446 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 315 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Earl and the insurance market
Earl's 61st-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.
Hardening a home in Earl
With 74.9% of Earl 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 Earl's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 211 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Earl. The exposure-zones guide covers what Earl's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.