Kirkland, WA
How exposed is Kirkland to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Kirkland lands at the 8th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 28,125 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Kirkland at the 9th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Kirkland's building exposure, zone by zone
93.2% of Kirkland's 28,125 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 28,125 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Kirkland ranks
Kirkland's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (8th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (8th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kirkland ranks 28,920 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 431 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 576 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Kirkland and the insurance market
At the 8th national percentile, Kirkland rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 93.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Kirkland gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Kirkland's figures come from
Kirkland's 8th-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 Kirkland's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.