Lake Wales, FL
Lake Wales wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Lake Wales lands at the 88th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 6,358 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lake Wales's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 90th percentile nationally.
Where Lake Wales's buildings actually sit
6,358 buildings are counted in Lake Wales, and 70.3% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 17.8% in Direct exposure or the 12% rated Minimal. At 6,358 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Lake Wales ranks
Lake Wales scores 88th nationally and 75th within Florida — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Wales ranks 3,775 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,722 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 239 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Lake Wales
Lake Wales's very high rating (88th 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
Lake Wales's 70.3% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lake Wales's 3,775-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Lake Wales, see the exposure-zones guide.