Dodson, LA
How exposed is Dodson to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Dodson lands at the 61st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 256 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Dodson at the 61st national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Dodson's buildings actually sit
256 buildings are counted in Dodson, and 78.9% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Where Dodson ranks
Dodson's 76th-percentile standing inside Louisiana outpaces its 61st national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Dodson ranks 12,288 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,940 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 116 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Dodson
Dodson's 61st-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Dodson's 78.9% 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.
Where Dodson's figures come from
Dodson's 61st-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 Dodson's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.