Anacortes, WA
How exposed is Anacortes to wildfire?
Anacortes sits at the 21st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 9,017 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Anacortes's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 17th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Anacortes (82.8% of 9,017 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 5.4% sit in the Direct zone. At 9,017 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Anacortes ranks
Anacortes's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (32nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (21st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Anacortes ranks 25,037 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,839 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 430 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Anacortes
At the 21st national percentile, Anacortes rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Anacortes
Because 82.8% of Anacortes'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.
Where Anacortes's figures come from
Anacortes's 21st-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 Anacortes's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.