Kelly, NC
Kelly, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Kelly sits at the 82nd 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 494 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Kelly's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
Kelly's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Kelly's 494 counted buildings, 91.1% 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 Kelly compares
Kelly scores 82nd nationally and 89th 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, Kelly ranks 5,707 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,461 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 90 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
Kelly's 82nd-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Kelly (91.1%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Kelly's 82nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Kelly, see the exposure-zones guide.