Naalehu, HI
Naalehu, HI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Naalehu at the 96th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 413 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Naalehu at the 93rd national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Naalehu's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 64.9% of Naalehu's 413 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 35.1% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Naalehu against the rest of the country
Naalehu scores 96th nationally and 85th within Hawaii — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Naalehu ranks 1,257 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,965 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 26 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 96th percentile nationally, Naalehu 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.
Hardening a home in Naalehu
Because 64.9% of Naalehu's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Naalehu's 1,257-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Naalehu, see the exposure-zones guide.