Bayou Gauche, LA
How exposed is Bayou Gauche to wildfire?
Bayou Gauche's 1,124 buildings earn a 53rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bayou Gauche at the 42nd national percentile — 11 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Bayou Gauche's buildings actually sit
64.2% of Bayou Gauche's 1,124 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 34.3% Direct and 1.5% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Bayou Gauche ranks
Bayou Gauche's risk sits at a similar level relative to Louisiana (63rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (53rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bayou Gauche ranks 14,903 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,122 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 182 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bayou Gauche's elevated rating (53rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Bayou Gauche (64.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bayou Gauche's 14,903-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Bayou Gauche, see the exposure-zones guide.