Hot Springs, NC
How exposed is Hot Springs to wildfire?
Hot Springs sits at the 84th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 515 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 Hot Springs at the 86th percentile, close to its 84th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 59% of Hot Springs's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 41% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 304 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Hot Springs ranks
Hot Springs scores 84th nationally and 93rd within North Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hot Springs ranks 4,987 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,105 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 55 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Hot Springs and the insurance market
Hot Springs's very high rating (84th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 59% of Hot Springs in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Hot Springs's figures come from
Hot Springs's 84th-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 Hot Springs's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.