Altoona, WA
How exposed is Altoona to wildfire?
USFS scores Altoona at the 25th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 59 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Altoona at the 24th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 98.3% of Altoona's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 1.7% Minimal share — a profile where 58 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Altoona compares
Within Washington, Altoona ranks higher (40th percentile) than it does nationally (25th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Altoona ranks 23,812 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,694 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 376 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Altoona
Altoona's moderate wildfire rating (25th 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.
Hardening a home in Altoona
Altoona's 98.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Altoona's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Altoona's 23,812-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Altoona's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.