Gold Bar, WA
Gold Bar, WA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Gold Bar's 1,067 buildings earn a 42nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Gold Bar at the 39th percentile, close to its 42nd-percentile risk score.
Where Gold Bar's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Gold Bar (82.9% of 1,067 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 17.2% sit in the Direct zone.
How Gold Bar compares
Compare Gold Bar's two percentiles: 58th within Washington, only 42nd nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gold Bar ranks 18,326 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,482 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 263 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Gold Bar's elevated wildfire rating (42nd 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Gold Bar (82.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Gold Bar's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gold Bar's 18,326-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gold Bar's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.