Hayward, WI
How exposed is Hayward to wildfire?
USFS scores Hayward at the 33rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 1,670 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hayward at the 31st national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 69.9% of Hayward's 1,670 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 29.2% Direct and 0.9% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Hayward ranks
Hayward's 74th-percentile standing inside Wisconsin outpaces its 33rd national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hayward ranks 21,196 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,525 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 207 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Hayward's moderate wildfire rating (33rd 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 Hayward (69.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Hayward's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hayward's 21,196-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hayward's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.