Palmetto Estates, FL
Palmetto Estates, FL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Palmetto Estates at the 70th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 4,160 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Palmetto Estates at the 72nd percentile, close to its 70th-percentile risk score.
Palmetto Estates's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Palmetto Estates's buildings (96.7% of 4,160) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Palmetto Estates ranks
Palmetto Estates ranks lower within Florida (26th percentile statewide) than its 70th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Palmetto Estates ranks 9,574 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,093 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 708 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Palmetto Estates and the insurance market
Palmetto Estates's 70th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Palmetto Estates
Even with 96.7% of Palmetto Estates 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.
Where Palmetto Estates's figures come from
Palmetto Estates's 70th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Palmetto Estates's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.