Ferndale, FL
Ferndale wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ferndale lands at the 85th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 347 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ferndale at the 87th percentile, close to its 85th-percentile risk score.
Where Ferndale's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 100% of Ferndale's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 347 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Ferndale against the rest of the country
Inside Florida, Ferndale sits at just the 64th percentile even though it scores 85th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ferndale ranks 4,751 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,387 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 347 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ferndale
At the 85th percentile nationally, Ferndale carries the very 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
Ferndale's 100% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ferndale's 4,751-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ferndale, see the exposure-zones guide.