Seattle, WA
How exposed is Seattle to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Seattle lands at the 6th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 193,564 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Seattle at the 6th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
98.9% of Seattle's 193,564 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 1.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 193,564 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Seattle compares
Seattle scores 6th nationally and 3rd within Washington — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Seattle ranks 29,645 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 607 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Seattle's low wildfire rating (6th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 98.9% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Seattle gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Seattle's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 193,564 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Seattle. The exposure-zones guide covers what Seattle's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.