Elim, AK
Elim wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Elim at the 87th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 200 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Elim's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
Where Elim's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 74% of Elim's 200 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 26% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Elim compares
Inside Alaska, Elim sits at just the 71st percentile even though it scores 87th 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, Elim ranks 4,021 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,829 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 93 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Elim
Elim's 87th-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.
Hardening a home in Elim
Elim's 74% 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.
Where Elim's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Elim's 4,021-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Elim's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.