Lafayette, LA
Lafayette, LA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Lafayette's 50,282 buildings earn a 40th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lafayette at the 44th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
76.6% of Lafayette's 50,282 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 10.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 50,282 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Lafayette against the rest of the country
Lafayette's risk sits at a similar level relative to Louisiana (39th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (40th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lafayette ranks 18,904 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 173 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 300 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Lafayette
Lafayette's moderate wildfire rating (40th 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 Lafayette
With 76.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Lafayette gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Lafayette's figures come from
Lafayette's 40th-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 Lafayette's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.