Richlands, NC
Richlands wildfire risk explained
Richlands sits at the 55th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,086 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Richlands at the 56th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Richlands's building exposure, zone by zone
1,086 buildings are counted in Richlands, and 51.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 48.8% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Richlands ranks
There's little gap between Richlands's 55th national percentile and its 52nd 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, Richlands ranks 14,097 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,367 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 368 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Richlands and the insurance market
Richlands's elevated rating (55th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Richlands
Because 51.2% of Richlands's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Richlands's 55th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Richlands, see the exposure-zones guide.