Saluda, NC
How exposed is Saluda to wildfire?
Saluda sits at the 60th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 549 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Saluda at the 61st national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Saluda's building exposure, zone by zone
549 buildings are counted in Saluda, and 88.7% 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 Saluda ranks
There's little gap between Saluda's 60th national percentile and its 59th 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, Saluda ranks 12,581 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,590 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 319 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Saluda and the insurance market
Saluda's high rating (60th 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Saluda (88.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Saluda's 12,581-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Saluda, see the exposure-zones guide.