Preston, ID
How exposed is Preston to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Preston at the 61st national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,990 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Preston at the 61st percentile, close to its 61st-percentile risk score.
Where Preston's buildings actually sit
Most of Preston's buildings (34.7% of 2,990) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Preston ranks
Preston's 61st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 26th ranking inside Idaho does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Preston ranks 12,380 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,452 by building count (1 is largest). Within Idaho alone, it ranks 171 of 232 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Idaho on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Preston'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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 34.7% of Preston outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,990 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Preston. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Preston, see the exposure-zones guide.