Ruston, LA
How exposed is Ruston to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ruston lands at the 43rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 7,967 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ruston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 43rd percentile nationally.
Where Ruston's buildings actually sit
Most of Ruston's buildings (59.5%) 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 7,967 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Ruston against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Ruston's 43rd national percentile and its 43rd percentile inside Louisiana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ruston ranks 18,088 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,124 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 280 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Ruston's elevated wildfire rating (43rd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Ruston
Because 59.5% of Ruston's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Ruston's 43rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ruston, see the exposure-zones guide.