South Cle Elum, WA
South Cle Elum, WA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
South Cle Elum sits at the 100th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 404 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (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 Cle Elum at the 100th percentile, close to its 100th-percentile risk score.
South Cle Elum's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 95.8% of South Cle Elum's 404 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 4.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where South Cle Elum ranks
There's little gap between South Cle Elum's 100th national percentile and its 99th percentile inside Washington, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Cle Elum ranks 173 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,144 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 11 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
South Cle Elum and the insurance market
South Cle Elum's very high rating (100th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in South Cle Elum (95.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where South Cle Elum's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 404 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for South Cle Elum. The exposure-zones guide covers what South Cle Elum's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.