Lakewood, WA
Lakewood, WA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Lakewood sits at the 20th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 21,459 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lakewood at the 21st national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Lakewood's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 93.3% of Lakewood's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 6.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 21,459 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
Lakewood's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (30th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (20th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lakewood ranks 25,354 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 648 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 442 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Lakewood
Lakewood's low wildfire rating (20th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 93.3% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Lakewood gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 21,459 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lakewood. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Lakewood, see the exposure-zones guide.