Hester, LA
Hester, LA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Hester sits at the 10th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 364 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hester at the 10th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Hester's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Hester's buildings (55.2% of 364) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Hester compares
There's little gap between Hester's 10th national percentile and its 5th percentile inside Louisiana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hester ranks 28,303 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,978 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 463 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Hester's low rating (10th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 55.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Hester gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hester's 28,303-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Hester, see the exposure-zones guide.