Highland Lakes, AL
Highland Lakes wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Highland Lakes at the 72nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,049 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Highland Lakes at the 74th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Highland Lakes's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Highland Lakes (53.7% of 2,049 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 46.2% sit in the Direct zone.
How Highland Lakes compares
Inside Alabama, Highland Lakes sits at just the 50th percentile even though it scores 72nd 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, Highland Lakes ranks 8,969 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,333 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 294 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Highland Lakes and the insurance market
Highland Lakes's high rating (72nd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 53.7% of Highland Lakes's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Highland Lakes's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,049 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Highland Lakes. The exposure-zones guide covers what Highland Lakes's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.