Leighton, AL
Leighton wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Leighton at the 22nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 568 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Leighton at the 23rd percentile, close to its 22nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 58.3% of Leighton's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 41.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Leighton compares
Inside Alabama, Leighton sits at just the 1st percentile even though it scores 22nd 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, Leighton ranks 24,603 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,277 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 588 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Leighton's moderate rating (22nd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 58.3% of Leighton 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 568 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Leighton. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Leighton, see the exposure-zones guide.