Fairview (Buncombe), NC
Fairview (Buncombe) wildfire risk explained
Fairview (Buncombe) sits at the 71st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,573 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Fairview (Buncombe) at the 73rd percentile, close to its 71st-percentile risk score.
Where Fairview (Buncombe)'s buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 95.7% of Fairview (Buncombe)'s buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 4.3% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 1,505 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Fairview (Buncombe) against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Fairview (Buncombe)'s 71st national percentile and its 71st 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, Fairview (Buncombe) ranks 9,210 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,875 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 224 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Fairview (Buncombe) and the insurance market
Fairview (Buncombe)'s high rating (71st percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Fairview (Buncombe)'s 95.7% 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
Fairview (Buncombe)'s 71st-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 Fairview (Buncombe), see the exposure-zones guide.