Inchelium, WA
How exposed is Inchelium to wildfire?
Inchelium sits at the 98th 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 394 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Inchelium at the 98th percentile, close to its 98th-percentile risk score.
Where Inchelium's buildings actually sit
Of Inchelium's 394 counted buildings, 90.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Inchelium compares
Inchelium scores 98th nationally and 95th within Washington — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Inchelium ranks 773 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,343 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 35 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Inchelium and the insurance market
At the 98th percentile nationally, Inchelium 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Inchelium's 90.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Inchelium's 98th-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 Inchelium, see the exposure-zones guide.