Melba, ID
Melba, ID's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Melba's 293 buildings earn a 84th-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.)
Separately from the risk score above, Melba's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 85th percentile nationally.
Where Melba's buildings actually sit
Only 32.4% of Melba's 293 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 67.6% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Melba compares
Melba's 84th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 55th ranking inside Idaho does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 30 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Melba ranks 4,978 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,812 by building count (1 is largest). Within Idaho alone, it ranks 106 of 232 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Idaho on its state page.
Melba and the insurance market
At the 84th percentile nationally, Melba carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 67.6% of Melba outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Melba's 84th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Melba, see the exposure-zones guide.