Geraldine, AL
Geraldine wildfire risk explained
Geraldine sits at the 78th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 816 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Geraldine's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
Geraldine's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 82% of Geraldine's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 17.4% Indirect share and far above its 0.6% Minimal share — a profile where 669 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Geraldine against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Geraldine's 78th national percentile and its 70th percentile inside Alabama, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Geraldine ranks 6,827 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,491 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 177 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Geraldine and the insurance market
Geraldine's 78th-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.
Hardening a home in Geraldine
With 82% of Geraldine 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
Geraldine's 78th-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 Geraldine, see the exposure-zones guide.