Shelby, NC
Shelby wildfire risk explained
Shelby's 10,823 buildings earn a 58th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Shelby's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 62nd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
45.7% of Shelby's 10,823 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 43.2% Direct and 11.1% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 10,823 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Shelby compares
Shelby's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (56th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (58th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shelby ranks 13,275 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,463 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 340 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shelby and the insurance market
Shelby's elevated wildfire rating (58th 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 Shelby
Because 45.7% of Shelby'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.
Where Shelby's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 10,823 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Shelby. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shelby's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.