Gilbertown, AL
Gilbertown, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Gilbertown lands at the 64th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 719 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gilbertown at the 65th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Gilbertown: 87.6% of its 719 buildings, versus 12.4% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Gilbertown against the rest of the country
Gilbertown's 64th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 33rd ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 31 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gilbertown ranks 11,459 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,463 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 397 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
Gilbertown's 64th-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 Gilbertown
Gilbertown's 87.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Gilbertown's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gilbertown's 11,459-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gilbertown's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.