Ilwaco, WA
How exposed is Ilwaco to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Ilwaco at the 29th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 735 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ilwaco's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 30th percentile nationally.
Where Ilwaco's buildings actually sit
Most of Ilwaco's buildings (74.7%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Ilwaco against the rest of the country
Compare Ilwaco's two percentiles: 48th within Washington, only 29th nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ilwaco ranks 22,297 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,281 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 327 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ilwaco
Ilwaco's moderate rating (29th 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
Ilwaco's 74.7% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ilwaco's 22,297-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ilwaco, see the exposure-zones guide.