Carlton, AL
How exposed is Carlton to wildfire?
Carlton sits at the 81st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 90 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Carlton's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
Where Carlton's buildings actually sit
Of Carlton's 90 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Carlton against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Carlton's 81st national percentile and its 77th percentile inside Alabama, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Carlton ranks 6,070 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,482 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 136 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 81st percentile nationally, Carlton 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Carlton (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Carlton's 6,070-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Carlton, see the exposure-zones guide.