Sikes, LA
Sikes, LA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Sikes's 120 buildings earn a 65th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sikes's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Sikes's building exposure, zone by zone
100% of Sikes's 120 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 120 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Sikes compares
Compare Sikes's two percentiles: 82nd within Louisiana, only 65th nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sikes ranks 10,965 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,145 by building count (1 is largest). Within Louisiana alone, it ranks 90 of 488 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Louisiana on its state page.
Sikes and the insurance market
Sikes's 65th-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.
Hardening a home in Sikes
Sikes's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Sikes's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 120 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Sikes. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sikes's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.