Hanapepe, HI
Hanapepe wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Hanapepe at the 87th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,015 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hanapepe's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Hanapepe (83.7% of 1,015 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 16.4% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Hanapepe ranks
Hanapepe's 87th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 27th ranking inside Hawaii does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 60 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hanapepe ranks 4,130 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,835 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 119 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
Hanapepe and the insurance market
Hanapepe's 87th-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
Because 83.7% of Hanapepe's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Hanapepe's 87th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hanapepe, see the exposure-zones guide.