Empire, GA
Empire wildfire risk explained
Empire's 279 buildings earn a 64th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Empire at the 64th percentile, close to its 64th-percentile risk score.
Where Empire's buildings actually sit
Of Empire's 279 counted buildings, 85% 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.
How Empire compares
Empire's 64th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 38th ranking inside Georgia does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 26 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Empire ranks 11,306 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,212 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 417 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
Empire and the insurance market
Empire's high rating (64th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 85% of Empire in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Empire's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Empire's 11,306-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Empire's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.