Pennington, AL
Pennington, AL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Pennington at the 57th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 299 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 Pennington at the 59th percentile, close to its 57th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
95% of Pennington's 299 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 284 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Pennington against the rest of the country
Inside Alabama, Pennington sits at just the 17th percentile even though it scores 57th 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, Pennington ranks 13,572 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,645 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 495 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Pennington's elevated rating (57th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Pennington's 95% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Pennington's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Pennington's 13,572-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pennington's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.