Eldridge, AL
How exposed is Eldridge to wildfire?
USFS scores Eldridge at the 72nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 132 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Eldridge at the 75th percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Eldridge's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Eldridge's 132 counted buildings, 94.7% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Eldridge against the rest of the country
Eldridge's 72nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 51st ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 21 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Eldridge ranks 8,843 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,603 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 290 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Eldridge and the insurance market
Eldridge's high rating (72nd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Eldridge (94.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Eldridge's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Eldridge's 8,843-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Eldridge's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.