Brandon, FL
Brandon wildfire risk explained
Brandon sits at the 70th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 33,078 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Brandon at the 72nd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 21.6% of Brandon's 33,078 buildings carry Direct exposure and 2.1% carry Indirect; the remaining 76.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 33,078 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Brandon compares
Brandon ranks lower within Florida (27th percentile statewide) than its 70th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brandon ranks 9,321 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 331 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 698 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Brandon's 70th-percentile, 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 Brandon
Even with 76.4% of Brandon outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Brandon's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 33,078 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Brandon. The exposure-zones guide covers what Brandon's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.