Elton, LA
Elton, LA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Elton sits at the 56th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 739 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Elton's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 57th percentile nationally.
Elton's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 80.2% of Elton's 739 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 12.2% Direct and 7.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Elton compares
There's little gap between Elton's 56th national percentile and its 68th percentile inside Louisiana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elton ranks 13,807 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,227 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 155 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Elton and the insurance market
Elton's elevated wildfire rating (56th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Elton
Because 80.2% of Elton's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Elton's figures come from
Elton's 56th-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 Elton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.