Henderson, NC
How exposed is Henderson to wildfire?
USFS scores Henderson at the 35th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 6,970 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Henderson's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 36th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Henderson: 39.6% of its 6,970 buildings, versus 31.2% Indirect and 29.2% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap. At 6,970 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Henderson against the rest of the country
Inside North Carolina, Henderson sits at just the 7th percentile even though it scores 35th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Henderson ranks 20,645 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,481 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 722 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 35th national percentile, Henderson rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Henderson's 39.6% 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 Henderson's figures come from
Henderson's 35th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Henderson's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.