Gaston, NC
How exposed is Gaston to wildfire?
USFS scores Gaston at the 39th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 752 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gaston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 39th percentile nationally.
Where Gaston's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Gaston: 69% of its 752 buildings, versus 31% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Gaston against the rest of the country
Gaston's 39th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 14th ranking inside North Carolina does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 25 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gaston ranks 19,324 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,105 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 668 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Gaston
Gaston's moderate wildfire rating (39th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Gaston
Gaston's 69% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gaston's 19,324-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gaston, see the exposure-zones guide.