Cape Canaveral, FL
How exposed is Cape Canaveral to wildfire?
Cape Canaveral's 2,414 buildings earn a 80th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cape Canaveral at the 80th percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
Cape Canaveral's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Cape Canaveral's buildings (91.8% of 2,414) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Cape Canaveral compares
Cape Canaveral's 80th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 49th ranking inside Florida does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 31 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cape Canaveral ranks 6,202 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,481 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 484 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Cape Canaveral and the insurance market
At the 80th percentile nationally, Cape Canaveral carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 91.8% of Cape Canaveral 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 Cape Canaveral's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Cape Canaveral's 6,202-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cape Canaveral's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.