South Bend, WA
South Bend, WA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, South Bend lands at the 24th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 961 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts South Bend at the 24th percentile, close to its 24th-percentile risk score.
Where South Bend's buildings actually sit
961 buildings are counted in South Bend, and 85.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 14.5% in Direct exposure or the 0.3% rated Minimal.
How South Bend compares
Compare South Bend's two percentiles: 40th within Washington, only 24th nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Bend ranks 23,844 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,222 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 378 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
South Bend's moderate rating (24th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in South Bend
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in South Bend (85.2% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind South Bend's 23,844-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond South Bend, see the exposure-zones guide.