Rio, LA
How exposed is Rio to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Rio at the 88th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 113 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 Rio at the 90th percentile, close to its 88th-percentile risk score.
Rio's building exposure, zone by zone
100% of Rio's 113 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 113 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Rio compares
Rio's risk sits at a similar level relative to Louisiana (98th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (88th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rio ranks 3,814 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,503 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 13 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Rio and the insurance market
Rio's 88th-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.
Hardening a home in Rio
With 100% of Rio in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Rio's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Rio's 3,814-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rio's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.