Apalachicola, FL
Apalachicola wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Apalachicola lands at the 98th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 1,549 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Apalachicola at the 96th percentile, close to its 98th-percentile risk score.
Apalachicola's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Apalachicola's buildings (89.6%) 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.
Apalachicola against the rest of the country
Apalachicola scores 98th nationally and 98th within Florida — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Apalachicola ranks 600 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,959 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 16 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Apalachicola
Apalachicola's very high rating (98th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Apalachicola
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Apalachicola (89.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Apalachicola's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,549 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Apalachicola. The exposure-zones guide covers what Apalachicola's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.