Highland Lake, AL
How exposed is Highland Lake to wildfire?
Highland Lake's 324 buildings earn a 77th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Highland Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 95.4% of Highland Lake's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0.3% Indirect share and far above its 4.3% Minimal share — a profile where 309 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Highland Lake compares
Highland Lake scores 77th nationally and 67th within Alabama — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Highland Lake ranks 7,267 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,977 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 192 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Highland Lake and the insurance market
Highland Lake's 77th-percentile, 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 Direct exposure dominates in Highland Lake (95.4%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Highland Lake's 77th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Highland Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.