Prosser, WA
Prosser wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Prosser at the 91st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 2,529 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Prosser's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 92nd percentile nationally.
Prosser's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 73% of Prosser's 2,529 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 12.1% Direct and 15% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Prosser compares
There's little gap between Prosser's 91st national percentile and its 81st percentile inside Washington, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Prosser ranks 2,819 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,244 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 118 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Prosser and the insurance market
Prosser's 91st-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Prosser (73% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,529 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Prosser. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Prosser, see the exposure-zones guide.