Helena, AL
Helena, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Helena lands at the 69th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 7,777 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Helena at the 72nd national percentile — 3 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
53.2% of Helena's 7,777 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 39.1% Direct and 7.7% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 7,777 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Helena against the rest of the country
Inside Alabama, Helena sits at just the 44th percentile even though it scores 69th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Helena ranks 9,662 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,188 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 329 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
At the 69th percentile nationally, Helena carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Helena
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Helena (53.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Helena's 9,662-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Helena, see the exposure-zones guide.