South Mills, NC
How exposed is South Mills to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts South Mills at the 52nd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 299 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts South Mills at the 51st percentile, close to its 52nd-percentile risk score.
South Mills's building exposure, zone by zone
299 buildings are counted in South Mills, and 56.9% 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 South Mills ranks
There's little gap between South Mills's 52nd national percentile and its 43rd 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, South Mills ranks 15,261 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,659 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 443 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in South Mills
At the 52nd national percentile, South Mills rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in South Mills
South Mills's 56.9% 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 299 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for South Mills. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond South Mills, see the exposure-zones guide.