Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores, FL
How exposed is Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores to wildfire?
USFS scores Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores at the 85th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 204 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 86th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
68.6% of Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores's 204 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 8.3% Direct and 23% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores ranks
Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores's 85th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 65th ranking inside Florida does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 20 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores ranks 4,663 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,686 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 332 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores and the insurance market
Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores's 85th-percentile, very 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
Because 68.6% of Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 204 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores, see the exposure-zones guide.