Pilot Mountain, NC
Pilot Mountain, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Pilot Mountain's 864 buildings earn a 40th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Pilot Mountain at the 42nd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Pilot Mountain's 864 counted buildings, 60.2% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Pilot Mountain compares
Pilot Mountain ranks lower within North Carolina (15th percentile statewide) than its 40th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pilot Mountain ranks 19,010 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,040 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 655 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pilot Mountain
Pilot Mountain's moderate wildfire rating (40th 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 Pilot Mountain
Pilot Mountain's 60.2% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 864 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pilot Mountain. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Pilot Mountain, see the exposure-zones guide.