Mountain Home, NC
How exposed is Mountain Home to wildfire?
USFS scores Mountain Home at the 50th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,654 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mountain Home's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 53rd percentile nationally.
Mountain Home's building exposure, zone by zone
1,654 buildings are counted in Mountain Home, and 80.1% 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.
Where Mountain Home ranks
There's little gap between Mountain Home's 50th national percentile and its 37th 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, Mountain Home ranks 15,860 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,582 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 485 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Mountain Home and the insurance market
Mountain Home's elevated wildfire rating (50th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Mountain Home
With 80.1% of Mountain Home 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.
Where Mountain Home's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,654 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Mountain Home. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mountain Home's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.