Wade, NC
Wade, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Wade at the 65th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 442 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Wade's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Wade's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Wade's 442 counted buildings, 67% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Wade ranks
Wade's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (65th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (65th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wade ranks 11,100 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,423 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 276 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
Wade's 65th-percentile, 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Wade (67%), 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
Wade's 65th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Wade, see the exposure-zones guide.