La Center, WA
How exposed is La Center to wildfire?
La Center sits at the 44th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,474 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts La Center at the 46th percentile, close to its 44th-percentile risk score.
Where La Center's buildings actually sit
73.3% of La Center's 1,474 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 26.7% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How La Center compares
Within Washington, La Center ranks higher (60th percentile) than it does nationally (44th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, La Center ranks 17,633 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,295 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 253 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
La Center and the insurance market
La Center's elevated wildfire rating (44th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in La Center
Because 73.3% of La Center's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where La Center's figures come from
La Center's 44th-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 La Center's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.