Port Heiden, AK
Port Heiden, AK's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Port Heiden sits at the 61st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 97 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Port Heiden at the 60th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Port Heiden's 97 counted buildings, 96.9% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Port Heiden compares
Port Heiden's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alaska (47th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (61st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Port Heiden ranks 12,247 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,161 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 170 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Port Heiden's 61st-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 Port Heiden
With 96.9% of Port Heiden 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.
Where Port Heiden's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Port Heiden's 12,247-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Port Heiden's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.