Ocean Isle Beach, NC
How exposed is Ocean Isle Beach to wildfire?
Ocean Isle Beach's 2,514 buildings earn a 80th-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.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ocean Isle Beach's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 75th percentile nationally.
Ocean Isle Beach's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 71.6% of Ocean Isle Beach's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 2.7% Direct and 25.7% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Ocean Isle Beach against the rest of the country
Ocean Isle Beach's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (85th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (80th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ocean Isle Beach ranks 6,374 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,276 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 116 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
Ocean Isle Beach's high rating (80th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Ocean Isle Beach's 71.6% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Ocean Isle Beach's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,514 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ocean Isle Beach. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ocean Isle Beach's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.