Punta Gorda, FL
How exposed is Punta Gorda to wildfire?
Punta Gorda sits at the 89th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 10,345 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Punta Gorda's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 90th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 66.8% of Punta Gorda's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 5.6% Direct and 27.6% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 10,345 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Punta Gorda ranks
Punta Gorda's risk sits at a similar level relative to Florida (78th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (89th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Punta Gorda ranks 3,524 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,542 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 214 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Punta Gorda and the insurance market
Punta Gorda's very high rating (89th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Punta Gorda
With 66.8% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Punta Gorda gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Punta Gorda's figures come from
Punta Gorda's 89th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Punta Gorda's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.