Ellensburg, WA
How exposed is Ellensburg to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ellensburg lands at the 97th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 7,230 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ellensburg's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 99th percentile nationally.
Ellensburg's building exposure, zone by zone
Ellensburg rates 59.2% Minimal exposure against just 17% Direct and 23.9% Indirect — of 7,230 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 7,230 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Ellensburg ranks
Ellensburg scores 97th nationally and 93rd within Washington — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ellensburg ranks 898 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,371 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 42 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ellensburg
Ellensburg's very high rating (97th 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
With 59.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Ellensburg gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Ellensburg's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ellensburg's 898-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ellensburg's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.