Sarasota, FL
Sarasota, FL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Sarasota at the 60th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 19,525 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sarasota's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 62nd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Sarasota's buildings (96% of 19,525) 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. At 19,525 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Sarasota ranks
Inside Florida, Sarasota sits at just the 15th percentile even though it scores 60th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sarasota ranks 12,476 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 727 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 812 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sarasota
At the 60th percentile nationally, Sarasota carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Sarasota
With 96% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Sarasota gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Sarasota's 60th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Sarasota, see the exposure-zones guide.