Ruth, NC
Ruth wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Ruth at the 70th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 245 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ruth at the 73rd percentile, close to its 70th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Ruth's 245 counted buildings, 54.3% 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.
Ruth against the rest of the country
Ruth's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (70th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (70th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ruth ranks 9,555 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,307 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 237 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ruth
Ruth's 70th-percentile, 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Ruth (54.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Ruth's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 245 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ruth. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ruth's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.