Haw River, NC
Haw River wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Haw River at the 49th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,419 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Haw River 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 Haw River's 1,419 counted buildings, 50.8% 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.
How Haw River compares
There's little gap between Haw River's 49th national percentile and its 36th 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, Haw River ranks 15,985 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,545 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 496 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Haw River
Haw River'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.
Hardening a home in Haw River
Haw River's 50.8% 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.
Where Haw River's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,419 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Haw River. The exposure-zones guide covers what Haw River's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.