Shungnak, AK
Shungnak wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Shungnak at the 79th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 94 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Shungnak's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
Shungnak's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Shungnak's buildings (59.6%) 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.
How Shungnak compares
Shungnak's 79th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 62nd ranking inside Alaska does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 17 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shungnak ranks 6,638 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,296 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 123 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Shungnak's 79th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Shungnak (59.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 94 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Shungnak. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Shungnak, see the exposure-zones guide.