Sleetmute, AK
Sleetmute wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Sleetmute lands at the 92nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 68 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Sleetmute at the 91st national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 76.5% of Sleetmute's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 23.5% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 52 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Sleetmute compares
Sleetmute scores 92nd nationally and 79th within Alaska — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sleetmute ranks 2,510 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,341 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 69 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
Sleetmute and the insurance market
Sleetmute's 92nd-percentile, very 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
Sleetmute's 76.5% 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 Sleetmute's figures come from
Sleetmute's 92nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sleetmute's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.