Gadsden, AL
Gadsden wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Gadsden lands at the 74th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 18,594 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gadsden's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 78th percentile nationally.
Where Gadsden's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 45.9% of Gadsden's 18,594 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 23.2% Direct and 30.9% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 18,594 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Gadsden against the rest of the country
Gadsden's 74th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 57th ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 18 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gadsden ranks 8,055 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 765 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 257 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Gadsden and the insurance market
Gadsden's high rating (74th 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.
Hardening a home in Gadsden
Because 45.9% of Gadsden'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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 18,594 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Gadsden. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Gadsden, see the exposure-zones guide.