Bellevue, ID
Bellevue wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Bellevue at the 87th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 1,180 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bellevue at the 84th percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
Bellevue's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Bellevue's buildings (84.6%) 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.
Bellevue against the rest of the country
Bellevue ranks lower within Idaho (59th percentile statewide) than its 87th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bellevue ranks 4,221 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,768 by building count (1 is largest). Within Idaho alone, it ranks 96 of 232 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Idaho on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bellevue
Bellevue's 87th-percentile, very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 84.6% of Bellevue's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Bellevue's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bellevue's 4,221-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bellevue's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.