Laie, HI
How exposed is Laie to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Laie at the 92nd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,119 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Laie at the 90th percentile, close to its 92nd-percentile risk score.
Where Laie's buildings actually sit
92.4% of Laie's 1,119 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 5.6% Direct and 2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Laie against the rest of the country
Inside Hawaii, Laie sits at just the 56th percentile even though it scores 92nd 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, Laie ranks 2,485 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,159 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 73 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Laie's very high rating (92nd 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Laie's 92.4% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Laie's 92nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Laie, see the exposure-zones guide.