Carbondale, CO
Carbondale wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Carbondale at the 78th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,882 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 Carbondale at the 74th percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Carbondale's building exposure, zone by zone
85.3% of Carbondale's 1,882 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 14.7% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Carbondale ranks
Inside Colorado, Carbondale sits at just the 50th percentile even though it scores 78th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Carbondale ranks 7,051 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,818 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 239 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Carbondale
Carbondale's high rating (78th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Carbondale
Carbondale's 85.3% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,882 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Carbondale. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Carbondale, see the exposure-zones guide.