Penton, AL
Penton wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Penton lands at the 81st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 200 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Penton at the 84th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Penton's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Penton: 100% of its 200 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Penton ranks
There's little gap between Penton's 81st national percentile and its 80th percentile inside Alabama, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Penton ranks 5,850 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,828 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 122 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
Penton's very high rating (81st 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 Penton
With 100% of Penton 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.
More on how this number was built
Penton's 81st-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Penton, see the exposure-zones guide.