Gold Hill, NC
How exposed is Gold Hill to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Gold Hill lands at the 49th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 320 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gold Hill at the 52nd national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Gold Hill's 320 counted buildings, 93.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Gold Hill ranks
Gold Hill's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (36th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (49th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gold Hill ranks 16,011 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,095 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 498 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Gold Hill
Gold Hill's elevated rating (49th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Gold Hill's 93.4% 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 Gold Hill's 16,011-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gold Hill, see the exposure-zones guide.