Cedar Bluff, AL
Cedar Bluff wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cedar Bluff at the 81st national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,438 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cedar Bluff at the 84th national percentile — 3 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
USFS classifies 66.8% of Cedar Bluff's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 10.4% Indirect share and far above its 22.8% Minimal share — a profile where 960 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Cedar Bluff compares
Cedar Bluff's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alabama (79th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (81st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cedar Bluff ranks 5,911 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,437 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 125 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, Cedar Bluff 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
Cedar Bluff's 66.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Cedar Bluff's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,438 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cedar Bluff. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cedar Bluff's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.