St. Helena, NC
How exposed is St. Helena to wildfire?
St. Helena sits at the 81st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 348 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks St. Helena at the 81st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where St. Helena's buildings actually sit
348 buildings are counted in St. Helena, and 87.6% 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 St. Helena ranks
St. Helena's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (87th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (81st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Helena ranks 5,965 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,375 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 100 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
St. Helena's 81st-percentile, very 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
St. Helena's 87.6% 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.
Where St. Helena's figures come from
St. Helena's 81st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Helena's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.