Cold Bay, AK
How exposed is Cold Bay to wildfire?
Cold Bay's 145 buildings earn a 7th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cold Bay at the 6th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Cold Bay's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 59.3% of Cold Bay's 145 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 40% Direct and 0.7% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Cold Bay ranks
Cold Bay's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alaska (5th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (7th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cold Bay ranks 29,362 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,056 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 305 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Cold Bay and the insurance market
Cold Bay's low rating (7th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Cold Bay
Cold Bay's 59.3% 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.
Where Cold Bay's figures come from
Cold Bay's 7th-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 Cold Bay's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.