Gold Hill, CO
How exposed is Gold Hill to wildfire?
Gold Hill's 191 buildings earn a 99th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (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 Hill at the 98th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 100% of Gold Hill's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 191 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Gold Hill ranks
Gold Hill scores 99th nationally and 96th within Colorado — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gold Hill ranks 350 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,186 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 24 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Gold Hill
Gold Hill's 99th-percentile, very 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 100% of Gold Hill 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.
Where Gold Hill's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gold Hill's 350-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Gold Hill's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.