Gay, GA
Gay, GA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gay at the 74th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 130 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gay's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 78th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
130 buildings are counted in Gay, and 81.5% 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.
Where Gay ranks
Gay scores 74th nationally and 79th within Georgia — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gay ranks 8,184 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,706 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 140 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
Gay and the insurance market
Gay's 74th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 81.5% of Gay 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
Gay's 74th-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 Gay, see the exposure-zones guide.