Kill Devil Hills, NC
How exposed is Kill Devil Hills to wildfire?
Kill Devil Hills sits at the 86th 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 6,480 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Kill Devil Hills's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
Where Kill Devil Hills's buildings actually sit
61.8% of Kill Devil Hills's 6,480 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 8.7% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 6,480 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Kill Devil Hills ranks
Kill Devil Hills's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (95th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (86th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kill Devil Hills ranks 4,386 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,679 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 41 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Kill Devil Hills and the insurance market
At the 86th percentile nationally, Kill Devil Hills carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With 61.8% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Kill Devil Hills gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Kill Devil Hills's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Kill Devil Hills's 4,386-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kill Devil Hills's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.