Topsail Beach, NC
Topsail Beach wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Topsail Beach lands at the 66th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,320 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Topsail Beach at the 63rd percentile, close to its 66th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Topsail Beach's buildings (96.1% of 1,320) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Topsail Beach against the rest of the country
Topsail Beach scores 66th nationally and 66th within North Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Topsail Beach ranks 10,850 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,972 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 266 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
Topsail Beach's high rating (66th 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.
Hardening a home in Topsail Beach
Topsail Beach's 96.1% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,320 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Topsail Beach. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Topsail Beach, see the exposure-zones guide.