Big Lake, WA
How exposed is Big Lake to wildfire?
USFS scores Big Lake at the 38th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 1,868 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Big Lake at the 31st national percentile — 7 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Big Lake's buildings actually sit
58.2% of Big Lake's 1,868 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,088 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 36% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 5.7% are Minimal.
Big Lake against the rest of the country
Big Lake's 56th-percentile standing inside Washington outpaces its 38th 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, Big Lake ranks 19,715 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,856 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 279 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Big Lake and the insurance market
At the 38th national percentile, Big Lake 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
Big Lake's 58.2% 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 Lake's figures come from
Big Lake's 38th-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 Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.