Chewelah, WA
Chewelah wildfire risk explained
Chewelah sits at the 88th 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 1,681 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Chewelah's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 88th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 82% of Chewelah's 1,681 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 18% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Chewelah against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Chewelah's 88th national percentile and its 79th percentile inside Washington, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chewelah ranks 3,860 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,492 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 135 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chewelah
At the 88th percentile nationally, Chewelah 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Chewelah (82% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chewelah's 3,860-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Chewelah, see the exposure-zones guide.