South Beach, FL
South Beach wildfire risk explained
South Beach sits at the 75th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,862 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, South Beach's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 75th percentile nationally.
South Beach's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 11.1% of South Beach's 1,862 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 88.9% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How South Beach compares
Inside Florida, South Beach sits at just the 37th percentile even though it scores 75th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Beach ranks 7,811 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,874 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 604 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in South Beach
At the 75th percentile nationally, South Beach carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in South Beach
South Beach's 88.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
South Beach's 75th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond South Beach, see the exposure-zones guide.