Hilo, HI
Hilo, HI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Hilo sits at the 85th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 21,218 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hilo at the 81st national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Hilo's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 57.6% of Hilo's 21,218 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 36% Direct and 6.4% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 21,218 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Hilo ranks
Inside Hawaii, Hilo sits at just the 19th percentile even though it scores 85th 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, Hilo ranks 4,597 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 656 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 133 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Hilo
At the 85th percentile nationally, Hilo carries the very 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 Hilo
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Hilo (57.6% 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 Hilo's 4,597-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hilo, see the exposure-zones guide.