Prescott, AZ
Prescott wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Prescott lands at the 96th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 23,668 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Prescott at the 94th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Prescott's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Prescott's buildings (48.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 23,668 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Prescott ranks
Prescott ranks lower within Arizona (77th percentile statewide) than its 96th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Prescott ranks 1,314 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 543 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 103 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Prescott's 96th-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
Prescott's 48.1% 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.
Where Prescott's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Prescott's 1,314-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Prescott's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.