Black Canyon City, AZ
Black Canyon City wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Black Canyon City at the 92nd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 2,206 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Black Canyon City at the 90th percentile, close to its 92nd-percentile risk score.
Where Black Canyon City's buildings actually sit
68.1% of Black Canyon City's 2,206 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 31.9% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Black Canyon City ranks
Black Canyon City ranks lower within Arizona (68th percentile statewide) than its 92nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Black Canyon City ranks 2,476 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,918 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 143 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Black Canyon City's 92nd-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 68.1% of Black Canyon City'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 Black Canyon City's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,206 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Black Canyon City. The exposure-zones guide covers what Black Canyon City's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.