Bickleton, WA
Bickleton wildfire risk explained
Bickleton sits at the 99th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 109 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bickleton at the 100th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
109 buildings are counted in Bickleton, and 78% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Bickleton against the rest of the country
Bickleton scores 99th nationally and 97th within Washington — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bickleton ranks 299 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,677 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 17 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bickleton
Bickleton's 99th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Bickleton (78%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Bickleton's 99th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bickleton, see the exposure-zones guide.