Forest City, NC
Forest City wildfire risk explained
Forest City sits at the 68th 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 4,117 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 Forest City at the 72nd percentile, close to its 68th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
55.3% of Forest City's 4,117 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 42.8% Direct and 1.9% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Forest City against the rest of the country
Forest City scores 68th nationally and 67th 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, Forest City ranks 10,060 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,129 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 252 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Forest City
Forest City's 68th-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
Forest City's 55.3% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,117 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Forest City. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Forest City, see the exposure-zones guide.