Whiteville, NC
Whiteville wildfire risk explained
Whiteville sits at the 72nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,929 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Whiteville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 74th percentile nationally.
Whiteville's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Whiteville's buildings (54.9%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Whiteville compares
Whiteville's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (73rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (72nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Whiteville ranks 8,736 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,542 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 210 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Whiteville
Whiteville's 72nd-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.
Hardening a home in Whiteville
Because 54.9% of Whiteville'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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,929 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Whiteville. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Whiteville, see the exposure-zones guide.