Fair Bluff, NC
How exposed is Fair Bluff to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Fair Bluff at the 78th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 690 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Fair Bluff at the 80th percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Where Fair Bluff's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 59.4% of Fair Bluff's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 40.6% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 410 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Fair Bluff compares
Fair Bluff scores 78th nationally and 81st within North Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fair Bluff ranks 6,810 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,760 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 146 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
Fair Bluff's 78th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 59.4% of Fair Bluff 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 690 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fair Bluff. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Fair Bluff, see the exposure-zones guide.