Maalaea, HI
Maalaea wildfire risk explained
Maalaea's 106 buildings earn a 96th-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Maalaea at the 93rd percentile, close to its 96th-percentile risk score.
Where Maalaea's buildings actually sit
106 buildings are counted in Maalaea, and 65.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 30.2% in Direct exposure or the 4.7% rated Minimal.
Maalaea against the rest of the country
Inside Hawaii, Maalaea sits at just the 78th percentile even though it scores 96th 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, Maalaea ranks 1,383 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,761 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 36 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
Maalaea's very high rating (96th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Maalaea
Maalaea's 65.1% 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
Maalaea's 96th-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 Maalaea, see the exposure-zones guide.