WildfireRiskFinder

McFarlan, NC

McFarlan, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers

High
76thpercentile nationally

McFarlan's 88 buildings earn a 76th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts McFarlan at the 78th percentile, close to its 76th-percentile risk score.

McFarlan's building exposure, zone by zone

88Total buildings
71.6%Direct exposure
28.4%Indirect exposure
0%Minimal exposure

USFS classifies 71.6% of McFarlan's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 28.4% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 63 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.

McFarlan against the rest of the country

There's little gap between McFarlan's 76th national percentile and its 78th 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, McFarlan ranks 7,665 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,585 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 169 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

McFarlan's 76th-percentile, 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.

What would actually reduce this score

With 71.6% of McFarlan 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.

More on how this number was built

Every one of the two percentiles behind McFarlan's 7,665-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond McFarlan, see the exposure-zones guide.