Appling, GA
Appling wildfire risk explained
Appling sits at the 75th 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 519 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Appling at the 77th percentile, close to its 75th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
100% of Appling's 519 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 519 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Appling against the rest of the country
Appling's risk sits at a similar level relative to Georgia (83rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (75th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Appling ranks 7,783 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,032 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 117 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Appling's 75th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Appling (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Appling's 7,783-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Appling, see the exposure-zones guide.