Bellingham, WA
Bellingham wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Bellingham at the 34th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 30,480 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bellingham's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 26th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
53.2% of Bellingham's 30,480 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 9.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 30,480 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Bellingham compares
Bellingham's 53rd-percentile standing inside Washington outpaces its 34th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bellingham ranks 20,911 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 374 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 298 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 34th national percentile, Bellingham rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 53.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Bellingham gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Bellingham's figures come from
Bellingham's 34th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bellingham's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.