Gainesville, AL
How exposed is Gainesville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gainesville at the 53rd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 165 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gainesville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 55th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
165 buildings are counted in Gainesville, and 90.3% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Gainesville against the rest of the country
Gainesville's 53rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 9th ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 44 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gainesville ranks 14,926 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,202 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 540 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
Gainesville's elevated wildfire rating (53rd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Gainesville
With 90.3% of Gainesville 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.
More on how this number was built
Gainesville's 53rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gainesville, see the exposure-zones guide.