Gadsden, AZ
How exposed is Gadsden to wildfire?
USFS scores Gadsden at the 20th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 238 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gadsden at the 22nd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Gadsden's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 79% of Gadsden's 238 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 21% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Gadsden against the rest of the country
Inside Arizona, Gadsden sits at just the 3rd percentile even though it scores 20th 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, Gadsden ranks 25,202 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,518 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 430 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Gadsden
At the 20th national percentile, Gadsden rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Gadsden
Gadsden's 79% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Gadsden's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gadsden's 25,202-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gadsden's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.