Helper, UT
How exposed is Helper to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Helper lands at the 67th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,349 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Helper at the 62nd national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Helper's buildings actually sit
1,349 buildings are counted in Helper, and 89.3% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 10.7% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Helper ranks
Helper's 67th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 26th ranking inside Utah does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 41 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Helper ranks 10,544 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,838 by building count (1 is largest). Within Utah alone, it ranks 243 of 326 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Utah on its state page.
Helper and the insurance market
At the 67th percentile nationally, Helper 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Helper (89.3% 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 Helper's 10,544-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Helper, see the exposure-zones guide.