Fairmont, NC
Fairmont, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Fairmont at the 76th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,313 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 Fairmont at the 76th percentile, close to its 76th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 54.2% of Fairmont's 1,313 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 44.6% Direct and 1.2% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Fairmont compares
There's little gap between Fairmont's 76th national percentile and its 78th 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, Fairmont ranks 7,443 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,006 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 167 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Fairmont
At the 76th percentile nationally, Fairmont 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Fairmont (54.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Fairmont's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,313 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fairmont. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fairmont's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.