Lanai City, HI
How exposed is Lanai City to wildfire?
Lanai City's 1,330 buildings earn a 90th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lanai City at the 85th national percentile — 5 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Lanai City's building exposure, zone by zone
1,330 buildings are counted in Lanai City, and 84.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 15.4% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Lanai City ranks
Inside Hawaii, Lanai City sits at just the 44th percentile even though it scores 90th 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, Lanai City ranks 3,242 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,926 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 92 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
At the 90th percentile nationally, Lanai City carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Lanai City's 84.6% 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
Lanai City's 90th-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 Lanai City, see the exposure-zones guide.