Big Delta, AK
Big Delta, AK's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Big Delta sits at the 98th 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 577 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 Big Delta at the 98th percentile, close to its 98th-percentile risk score.
Big Delta's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Big Delta: 90.8% of its 577 buildings, versus 9% Indirect and 0.2% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Big Delta against the rest of the country
Big Delta's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alaska (96th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (98th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Big Delta ranks 523 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,141 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 15 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Big Delta and the insurance market
Big Delta's 98th-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.
Hardening a home in Big Delta
Big Delta's 90.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Big Delta's figures come from
Big Delta'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 Big Delta's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.