Alma, MI
Alma, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Alma at the 5th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 3,790 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Alma at the 5th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
93.1% of Alma's 3,790 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Alma compares
There's little gap between Alma's 5th national percentile and its 13th percentile inside Michigan, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Alma ranks 29,849 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,436 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 647 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Alma
Alma's low wildfire rating (5th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 93.1% of Alma 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,790 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Alma. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Alma, see the exposure-zones guide.