Marshallberg, NC
How exposed is Marshallberg to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Marshallberg at the 91st national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 397 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Marshallberg at the 89th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Marshallberg's buildings actually sit
397 buildings are counted in Marshallberg, and 84.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 5.3% rated Minimal.
Marshallberg against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Marshallberg's 91st national percentile and its 98th 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, Marshallberg ranks 2,740 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,275 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 14 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Marshallberg
Marshallberg's 91st-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 Marshallberg (84.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Marshallberg's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 397 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Marshallberg. The exposure-zones guide covers what Marshallberg's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.