Colony, AL
Colony wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Colony at the 77th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 180 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Colony's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
Colony's building exposure, zone by zone
99.4% of Colony's 180 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 179 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Colony against the rest of the country
Colony scores 77th nationally and 66th within Alabama — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Colony ranks 7,363 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,606 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 203 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
Colony's 77th-percentile, 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
With 99.4% of Colony in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Colony's 77th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Colony, see the exposure-zones guide.