Bay, AR
How exposed is Bay to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bay at the 4th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 936 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bay's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 4th percentile nationally.
Bay's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 77% of Bay's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 23% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Bay compares
There's little gap between Bay's 4th national percentile and its 2nd percentile inside Arkansas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bay ranks 30,276 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,419 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arkansas alone, it ranks 600 of 614 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arkansas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bay
Bay's low wildfire rating (4th 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 Bay
Even with 77% of Bay outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 936 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bay. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Bay, see the exposure-zones guide.