Ponce Inlet, FL
How exposed is Ponce Inlet to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Ponce Inlet at the 87th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,243 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ponce Inlet's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 85th percentile nationally.
Ponce Inlet's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 87.3% of Ponce Inlet's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 12.7% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Ponce Inlet ranks
Ponce Inlet scores 87th nationally and 73rd within Florida — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ponce Inlet ranks 3,964 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,379 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 258 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Ponce Inlet and the insurance market
At the 87th percentile nationally, Ponce Inlet 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 Ponce Inlet
Ponce Inlet's 87.3% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,243 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ponce Inlet. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Ponce Inlet, see the exposure-zones guide.