Liberty Lake, WA
Liberty Lake, WA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Liberty Lake at the 65th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 3,741 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Liberty Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 62nd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
64.9% of Liberty Lake's 3,741 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 18.6% Direct and 16.6% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Liberty Lake compares
Liberty Lake's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (70th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (65th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Liberty Lake ranks 11,045 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,483 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 191 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Liberty Lake's 65th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
Liberty Lake's 64.9% 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 Liberty Lake's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Liberty Lake's 11,045-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Liberty Lake's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.