Bettles, AK
How exposed is Bettles to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bettles lands at the 98th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 43 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bettles's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 98th percentile nationally.
Bettles's building exposure, zone by zone
43 buildings are counted in Bettles, and 88.4% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 11.6% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Bettles against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Bettles's 98th national percentile and its 96th percentile inside Alaska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bettles ranks 522 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,088 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 14 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Bettles and the insurance market
At the 98th percentile nationally, Bettles carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 88.4% of Bettles'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 Bettles's figures come from
Bettles's 98th-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 Bettles's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.