Mentasta Lake, AK
Mentasta Lake wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Mentasta Lake at the 88th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 73 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mentasta Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 87th percentile nationally.
Mentasta Lake's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 87.7% of Mentasta Lake's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 12.3% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 64 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Mentasta Lake against the rest of the country
Inside Alaska, Mentasta Lake sits at just the 73rd percentile even though it scores 88th 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, Mentasta Lake ranks 3,642 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,156 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 87 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Mentasta Lake and the insurance market
Mentasta Lake's very high rating (88th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 87.7% of Mentasta Lake in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Mentasta Lake's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 73 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Mentasta Lake. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mentasta Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.