Kula, HI
Kula, HI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Kula's 3,700 buildings earn a 91st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Kula at the 88th percentile, close to its 91st-percentile risk score.
Kula's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Kula's 3,700 counted buildings, 67.4% 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.
Where Kula ranks
Inside Hawaii, Kula sits at just the 50th percentile even though it scores 91st 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, Kula ranks 2,732 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,523 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 82 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
Kula and the insurance market
Kula's very high rating (91st percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Kula's 67.4% 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.
Where Kula's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Kula's 2,732-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kula's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.