Creston, WA
Creston, WA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Creston lands at the 96th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 229 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Creston at the 96th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Creston's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 65.9% of Creston's 229 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 34.1% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Creston ranks
Creston's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (89th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (96th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Creston ranks 1,337 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,839 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 69 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Creston's 96th-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
Creston's 65.9% 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.
More on how this number was built
Creston's 96th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Creston, see the exposure-zones guide.