Excel, AL
Excel, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Excel at the 67th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 409 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Excel at the 69th percentile, close to its 67th-percentile risk score.
Excel's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Excel's 409 counted buildings, 80.7% 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.
How Excel compares
Excel's 67th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 40th ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 27 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Excel ranks 10,293 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,044 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 354 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 67th percentile nationally, Excel carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With 80.7% of Excel 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 Excel's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 409 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Excel. The exposure-zones guide covers what Excel's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.