Ellerbe, NC
Ellerbe, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Ellerbe at the 80th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 555 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 Ellerbe at the 81st percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
555 buildings are counted in Ellerbe, and 54.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 45.8% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Ellerbe against the rest of the country
Ellerbe's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (85th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (80th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ellerbe ranks 6,403 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,502 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 117 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Ellerbe and the insurance market
At the 80th percentile nationally, Ellerbe carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Ellerbe
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Ellerbe (54.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ellerbe's 6,403-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ellerbe, see the exposure-zones guide.