Sheffield, AL
Sheffield wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sheffield lands at the 38th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 5,438 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sheffield at the 41st percentile, close to its 38th-percentile risk score.
Where Sheffield's buildings actually sit
5,438 buildings are counted in Sheffield, and 49.7% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 24.6% in Direct exposure or the 25.7% rated Minimal. At 5,438 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Sheffield ranks
Sheffield ranks lower within Alabama (3rd percentile statewide) than its 38th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sheffield ranks 19,402 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,176 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 573 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 38th national percentile, Sheffield rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Sheffield
Because 49.7% of Sheffield'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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sheffield's 19,402-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Sheffield, see the exposure-zones guide.