Coaldale, CO
Coaldale wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Coaldale lands at the 90th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 421 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Coaldale at the 83rd percentile, close to its 90th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Coaldale: 99.1% of its 421 buildings, versus 1% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Coaldale compares
Coaldale ranks lower within Colorado (74th percentile statewide) than its 90th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Coaldale ranks 3,305 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,798 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 124 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Coaldale's 90th-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
Coaldale's 99.1% 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 421 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Coaldale. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Coaldale, see the exposure-zones guide.