Coral Gables, FL
Coral Gables wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Coral Gables at the 73rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 14,270 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Coral Gables's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 76th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Coral Gables's buildings (85.7% of 14,270) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 14,270 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Coral Gables against the rest of the country
Inside Florida, Coral Gables sits at just the 33rd percentile even though it scores 73rd 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, Coral Gables ranks 8,501 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,050 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 643 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Coral Gables and the insurance market
At the 73rd percentile nationally, Coral Gables 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 85.7% of Coral Gables outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Coral Gables's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 14,270 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Coral Gables. The exposure-zones guide covers what Coral Gables's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.