Hendersonville, NC
How exposed is Hendersonville to wildfire?
USFS scores Hendersonville at the 52nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 6,116 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hendersonville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 55th percentile nationally.
Where Hendersonville's buildings actually sit
Most of Hendersonville's buildings (62.7%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 6,116 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Hendersonville against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Hendersonville's 52nd national percentile and its 43rd 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, Hendersonville ranks 15,293 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,835 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 445 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 52nd national percentile, Hendersonville rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Hendersonville
Because 62.7% of Hendersonville's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,116 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hendersonville. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hendersonville, see the exposure-zones guide.