Pisgah, AL
Pisgah wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Pisgah at the 82nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 593 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Pisgah's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 85th percentile nationally.
Pisgah's building exposure, zone by zone
593 buildings are counted in Pisgah, and 88% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Pisgah compares
Pisgah scores 82nd nationally and 81st within Alabama — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pisgah ranks 5,756 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,922 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 116 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
Pisgah's 82nd-percentile, very 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Pisgah (88%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Pisgah's 82nd-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 Pisgah, see the exposure-zones guide.