Mesic, NC
Mesic, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Mesic sits at the 81st 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 211 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 Mesic at the 76th percentile, close to its 81st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
211 buildings are counted in Mesic, and 93.4% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Mesic compares
Mesic scores 81st nationally and 86th 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, Mesic ranks 6,117 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,447 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 107 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
Mesic's 81st-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 93.4% of Mesic 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
Mesic's 81st-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 Mesic, see the exposure-zones guide.