McCalla, AL
McCalla, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
McCalla sits at the 72nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,596 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks McCalla at the 75th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
McCalla's building exposure, zone by zone
6,596 buildings are counted in McCalla, and 69.4% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0.1% rated Minimal. At 6,596 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How McCalla compares
McCalla ranks lower within Alabama (51st percentile statewide) than its 72nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, McCalla ranks 8,906 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,629 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 291 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
McCalla and the insurance market
McCalla's 72nd-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
McCalla's 69.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,596 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for McCalla. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond McCalla, see the exposure-zones guide.