Clay, AL
How exposed is Clay to wildfire?
USFS scores Clay at the 72nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 4,344 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 Clay at the 75th percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Where Clay's buildings actually sit
76.4% of Clay's 4,344 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 3,319 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 21.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 1.9% are Minimal.
How Clay compares
Inside Alabama, Clay sits at just the 53rd percentile even though it scores 72nd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clay ranks 8,686 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,938 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 281 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 72nd percentile nationally, Clay carries the 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Clay's 76.4% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,344 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Clay. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Clay, see the exposure-zones guide.