Anniston, AL
Anniston, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Anniston sits at the 80th 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 11,959 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Anniston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Anniston's buildings (52%) 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. At 11,959 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Anniston compares
Anniston's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alabama (75th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (80th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Anniston ranks 6,290 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,304 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 147 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Anniston
Anniston's 80th-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 Anniston
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Anniston (52% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Anniston's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,959 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Anniston. The exposure-zones guide covers what Anniston's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.