Clarkston, WA
Clarkston wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Clarkston lands at the 83rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 3,452 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Clarkston at the 86th national percentile — 4 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Clarkston's buildings actually sit
3,452 buildings are counted in Clarkston, and 54.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 1% in Direct exposure or the 44.8% rated Minimal.
Clarkston against the rest of the country
Clarkston's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (75th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (83rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clarkston ranks 5,468 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,843 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 157 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Clarkston and the insurance market
Clarkston's 83rd-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
Clarkston's 54.2% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Clarkston's 5,468-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Clarkston, see the exposure-zones guide.