Kotlik, AK
Kotlik wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Kotlik at the 68th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 182 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Kotlik at the 74th national percentile — 6 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Kotlik's buildings actually sit
50% of Kotlik's 182 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 91 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 50% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Kotlik against the rest of the country
Inside Alaska, Kotlik sits at just the 51st percentile even though it scores 68th 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, Kotlik ranks 9,979 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,523 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 159 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Kotlik
Kotlik's 68th-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.
Hardening a home in Kotlik
Because Direct exposure dominates in Kotlik (50%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 182 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Kotlik. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Kotlik, see the exposure-zones guide.