Akron, OH
How exposed is Akron to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Akron at the 28th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 92,013 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Akron at the 28th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Akron's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 5.5% of Akron's 92,013 buildings carry Direct exposure and 16.2% carry Indirect; the remaining 78.3% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 92,013 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Akron against the rest of the country
Compare Akron's two percentiles: 61st within Ohio, only 28th nationally — a gap of 34 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Akron ranks 22,859 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 75 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 493 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 28th national percentile, Akron rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 78.3% of Akron outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Akron's figures come from
Akron's 28th-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 Akron's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.