Metaline Falls, WA
Metaline Falls wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Metaline Falls at the 80th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 195 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Metaline Falls at the 75th percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
81.5% of Metaline Falls's 195 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 18% Direct and 0.5% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Metaline Falls ranks
Metaline Falls's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (75th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (80th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Metaline Falls ranks 6,287 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,049 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 161 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Metaline Falls
Metaline Falls's very high rating (80th 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.
Hardening a home in Metaline Falls
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Metaline Falls (81.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Metaline Falls's 6,287-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Metaline Falls, see the exposure-zones guide.