Hays, NC
Hays wildfire risk explained
Hays sits at the 52nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,207 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 Hays at the 55th percentile, close to its 52nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 99% of Hays's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 1% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 1,195 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Hays compares
There's little gap between Hays's 52nd national percentile and its 45th 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, Hays ranks 15,006 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,611 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 425 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Hays and the insurance market
Hays's elevated rating (52nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Hays's 99% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,207 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hays. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Hays, see the exposure-zones guide.