Choctaw Lake, OH
Choctaw Lake wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Choctaw Lake at the 12th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,039 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Choctaw Lake at the 12th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
Choctaw Lake's building exposure, zone by zone
70.8% of Choctaw Lake's 1,039 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 29.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Choctaw Lake against the rest of the country
Compare Choctaw Lake's two percentiles: 35th within Ohio, only 12th nationally — a gap of 24 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Choctaw Lake ranks 27,901 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,662 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 821 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Choctaw Lake
At the 12th national percentile, Choctaw Lake rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 70.8% of Choctaw Lake 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 Choctaw Lake's figures come from
Choctaw Lake's 12th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Choctaw Lake's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.