Potlatch, ID
Potlatch wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Potlatch lands at the 63rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 509 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Potlatch's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Potlatch's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 96.7% of Potlatch's 509 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 3.3% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Potlatch compares
Potlatch's 63rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 30th ranking inside Idaho does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 33 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Potlatch ranks 11,593 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,186 by building count (1 is largest). Within Idaho alone, it ranks 163 of 232 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Idaho on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Potlatch
At the 63rd percentile nationally, Potlatch carries the 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Potlatch's 96.7% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Potlatch's 11,593-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Potlatch, see the exposure-zones guide.