Joppa, AL
How exposed is Joppa to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Joppa at the 69th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 401 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Joppa at the 73rd national percentile — 5 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Joppa's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Joppa's 401 counted buildings, 90.5% 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.
Joppa against the rest of the country
Joppa ranks lower within Alabama (44th percentile statewide) than its 69th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Joppa ranks 9,852 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,176 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 333 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Joppa and the insurance market
Joppa's 69th-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
With 90.5% of Joppa in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Joppa's figures come from
Joppa's 69th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Joppa's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.