Lakewood, OH
Lakewood wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lakewood at the 22nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 18,775 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lakewood's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 23rd percentile nationally.
Lakewood's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Lakewood's buildings (98.1% of 18,775) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 18,775 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Lakewood against the rest of the country
Compare Lakewood's two percentiles: 53rd within Ohio, only 22nd nationally — a gap of 31 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lakewood ranks 24,745 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 759 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 600 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Lakewood's moderate wildfire rating (22nd 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 Lakewood
Even with 98.1% of Lakewood outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Lakewood's figures come from
Lakewood's 22nd-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 Lakewood's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.