Fern Prairie, WA
How exposed is Fern Prairie to wildfire?
USFS scores Fern Prairie at the 52nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,524 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Fern Prairie at the 54th percentile, close to its 52nd-percentile risk score.
Where Fern Prairie's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Fern Prairie: 88% of its 1,524 buildings, versus 12% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Fern Prairie against the rest of the country
Fern Prairie scores 52nd nationally and 63rd 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, Fern Prairie ranks 15,240 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,068 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 233 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Fern Prairie and the insurance market
Fern Prairie's elevated rating (52nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Fern Prairie's 88% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,524 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fern Prairie. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Fern Prairie, see the exposure-zones guide.