Shishmaref, AK
Shishmaref, AK's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Shishmaref at the 11th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 206 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Shishmaref at the 18th national percentile — 7 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
81.1% of Shishmaref's 206 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 18.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Shishmaref against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Shishmaref's 11th national percentile and its 15th percentile inside Alaska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shishmaref ranks 28,133 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,630 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 275 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Shishmaref
Shishmaref's low wildfire rating (11th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 81.1% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Shishmaref gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Shishmaref's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Shishmaref's 28,133-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shishmaref's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.