Lake Isabella, MI
Lake Isabella, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Lake Isabella lands at the 20th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 1,151 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Lake Isabella at the 19th percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
Where Lake Isabella's buildings actually sit
Of Lake Isabella's 1,151 counted buildings, 79% carry Direct exposure and only 11.4% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Lake Isabella compares
Compare Lake Isabella's two percentiles: 66th within Michigan, only 20th nationally — a gap of 47 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Isabella ranks 25,280 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,953 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 253 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Lake Isabella
At the 20th national percentile, Lake Isabella rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Lake Isabella's 79% 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 Lake Isabella's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,151 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lake Isabella. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lake Isabella's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.