Laurel, FL
How exposed is Laurel to wildfire?
USFS scores Laurel at the 89th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 7,707 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Laurel at the 88th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Laurel's buildings actually sit
Most of Laurel's buildings (48.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 7,707 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Laurel ranks
Laurel's risk sits at a similar level relative to Florida (76th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (89th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Laurel ranks 3,618 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,210 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 226 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 89th percentile nationally, Laurel 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.
Hardening a home in Laurel
Laurel's 48.6% 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.
Where Laurel's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Laurel's 3,618-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Laurel's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.