Mead, WA
How exposed is Mead to wildfire?
Mead sits at the 53rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 4,082 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mead at the 52nd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Mead's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 17.3% of Mead's 4,082 buildings carry Direct exposure and 2.8% carry Indirect; the remaining 79.9% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Mead against the rest of the country
Mead's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (63rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (53rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mead ranks 14,987 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,159 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 232 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Mead and the insurance market
Mead's elevated wildfire rating (53rd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Mead's 79.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,082 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Mead. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Mead, see the exposure-zones guide.