Jackson, AL
Jackson wildfire risk explained
Jackson sits at the 71st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 3,037 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Jackson at the 73rd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Jackson's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 69.1% of Jackson's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 31% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 2,097 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Where Jackson ranks
Inside Alabama, Jackson sits at just the 49th percentile even though it scores 71st 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, Jackson ranks 9,065 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,377 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 301 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Jackson
Jackson's 71st-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
Jackson's 69.1% 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
Jackson's 71st-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 Jackson, see the exposure-zones guide.