Kapalua, HI
Kapalua wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Kapalua at the 94th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 506 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Kapalua at the 93rd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
506 buildings are counted in Kapalua, and 60.9% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 38.3% in Direct exposure or the 0.8% rated Minimal.
How Kapalua compares
Kapalua's 94th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 72nd ranking inside Hawaii does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 23 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kapalua ranks 1,792 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,239 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 48 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Kapalua
Kapalua's 94th-percentile, very 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.
Hardening a home in Kapalua
Kapalua's 60.9% 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.
Where Kapalua's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 506 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Kapalua. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kapalua's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.